Starting a business with products processed from lotus

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le (standing) is checking quality of lotus seeds after peeling   

Creating many products from lotus

Ms. Bich Le said that in 1998, a Taiwanese (China) company located in Phu Hoi Commune (Nhon Trach District) contracted with farmers in the district to grow lotus and cover exclusive sales for lotus seed pods. At that time, the farmers in her countryside were excited because there would be an additional source of income from lotus in addition to a rice crop, so many households grew lotus, including Le's family. However, during the harvest season, that company only bought lotus seed pods with evenly large and just ripe seeds, and those with small and overripe seeds were not bought. The lotus seed pods were not purchased much; and could not be properly processed, so the people almost threw them away.

Ms. Le confided, seeing the products from effort and sweat being removed, she felt deeply sorry. In that situation, the idea of starting a business with a lotus flashed through her mind. Initially, she and her family members separated the lotus seeds and sold them to buyers for their consumption. Gradually, she got acquainted and delivered the products to a number of stalls in markets with several tens of kilograms of fresh lotus seeds averagely per day. Realizing that the demand for fresh lotus seeds in the market was growing, in 2006, Ms. Le decided to set up Truong Phat lotus collection establishment in order to increase consumption of lotus seeds planted by farmers in the district. During the harvest season, the output of lotus seed pods was very large. Meanwhile, at the end of the harvest season, lotus seeds were scarce, the demand for lotus seeds, however, remained unchanged. To ensure supply of lotus seeds to the market, Ms. Le invested in machinery to process dried lotus seeds. During the process of collecting lotus seed pods and separating their seeds, there were a large number of overripe lotus seeds that were black and could not be marketed as freshly ripe lotus seeds (white). Meanwhile, the quality of the old lotus seeds is not inferior to that of the just ripe ones, it would be wasteful if discarded. Seeing that there were a lot of healthy drinking water powder products on the market made from seeds, Ms. Le tried to make a family drink from lotus seed powder. Lotus seed powder after being processed, mixed with hot water, and added with honey or sugar is not only tasty but also good for health. After experiencing the lotus seed powder and consulting some experts on medicinal herbs, she officially launched the nutritious lotus powder, lotus powder with embryos.

With the aim of diversifying products to meet the needs of consumers, after the nutritional lotus powder, Ms. Le has combined lotus seeds with beans, brown rice, black sesame, etc. to create nutritional cereal products and dried lotus seeds with butter and so forth. In addition to nutritional products, Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative also has products such as lotus seed tea, lotus embryo tea, lotus leaf tea, etc. that have positive effects on health.

Ms. Le confided that to get a list of about 12 products processed from lotus as today is the process of her painstakingness, self-study, along with boldness when investing in purchasing and renovating types of machines and equipment for production. “In the near future, Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative will invest in automatic machines to produce tea bags and powder in small bags (about 20g/ bag) to ensure that consumers can access the products anywhere," said Le.

Helping stabilize people's lives

 

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le (second from left) is introducing the existing products of Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative  

In addition to investing in equipment and machines for production, ensuring stability of input materials plays a very important role. To ensure the source of raw materials in terms of quantity, quality as well as safety, Ms. Le cooperated with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Farmers' Union at all levels to come to households who have been growing lotus to discuss coverage of product consumption in order to encourage the households to expand their lotus planting area. Not only aiming at the lotus growing households in the district, but also through her relationships, Ms. Le also connected with other lotus growing households outside the district. Up to now, Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative has a raw material area of about 70 hectares, ensuring sufficient supply of production needs in the current period.

A successful start-up not only helped Ms. Le with her economic autonomy, contributing to improving the position of women in society, but also helped stabilize farmers'life. Thanks to the agricultural service co-operative to consume the products, Mr. Tran Van Ngoc's family condition (living in Long Hieu Hamlet, Nhon Trach District) was better off. Ngoc said that at the time Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative encouraged the households to grow lotus and promised to sell their products, his family hesitated. Initially, his family planted only a little as a form of trial. The output of the first crops was good, so his family decided to expand the lotus planting area. Since then, his family has earned an additional income from the lotus crop each year (about 100 million VND/ ha on average), and has gradually improved his life and family.

Not only helping lotus growers have more income, Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative is also creating jobs for about 40 local workers, of which are mainly women, with an average income of 5 million VND/ person/ month. After 10 years of working with Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative, Ms. Ta Thi Tim (57 years old), Vinh Tuy Hamlet, Long Tan Commune (Nhon Trach District) said that, previously, due to her old age, she could not go to an enterprise to work as a worker, so her job was unstable. Since joining Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative, her job has been steady with stable income, so her life is also more comfortable than before.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Le shared that the goal of Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative is not only to create products that contribute to care for consumers' health, but also to help improve the lives of Nhon Trach people. In order for Truong Phat Agricultural Service Cooperative to develop in a long-term and sustainable manner and achieve a firm foothold in the market and in the hearts of consumers for the lotus-processed products, in recent years, Ms. Le has started to pay attention to product branding. Therefore, in addition to ensuring stability of product quality, she started investing in packaging and product labels; and enlisted support of the competent authorities to participate in product display at conferences, seminars, fairs, etc. to introduce her products to consumers.

Khanh Ngan