After 11 years of exporting fruits, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, the general director of Vina T&T Group shows the opinion that there should be someone that pioneers and has the good community to let the world knows Vietnam’s agriculture products.
Vina T&T building with red and white is located on Tran Huy Lieu Street, Phu Nhuan Dist, Ho Chi Minh City. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung, who is the General Director of Vina T&T, has just ended the meeting with Vice President of Costco Supermarket in order to discuss the contract about coconut, mango and dragon fruit to the retail supply chain in the US.
In 2018, exporting fruits and vegetables reached more than USD 3.7 billion. In particular, the total of revenue that Vina T&T Group that occupied USD 30 million was one of the top exporters to the United State market. The percent of exporting rates accounted for 50% in total of 15 enterprises. The report in 2018 showed that the company exported 7200 tons of coconut, 3800 tons of dragon fruit, 1800 tons of longan and 200 tons of rambutan. In 2017, Ben Tre coconut had been shipped the first time to export to the US market by Vina T&T group. On April 2019, after 10 years discussing, “Cat Chu” mango and Large mango had been loaded to the US market which is one of the biggest mango markets. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung said “ I want my family and my wife relatives are proud, Vietnam Tropical Fruits develops and be known to the world.
Vina T&T Group established 2014 has seven subsidiaries which focus on exporting Viet Nam tropical fresh fruits. Basing on the accumulative finance, the company developed three factories at Dong Thap Province, Ben Tre Province, and Tien Giang Province. In addition, the main areas which grow tropical fruits occupy more approximately 58% in the total area of the South. Besides, the new fresh coconut factory is constructed, which names Kim Thanh, is the biggest one at Ben Tre Province with productivity is 25 million fruits per year. This factory located on 200 Ha square fruit area meet the global standard HACCP, ISO.
Fresh Fruit is one of the risks of agricultural industries. To be more specific, rains, as well as heavy wind, can make the fruit get scars; fruits which are harvested carelessly contain many strange creatures. Besides, the goods are collected at the wrong time, which makes the gap temperature between outside and factory as well as gets damaged to the quality of the fruit. The value chain consists of many parts cleaned soil, water resources, premium seed as well as fertilizer selection, pesticide, harvesting, sanitation, packaging as well exported process. In addition, the connection between Vina T&T Group and 4 terms managers, investors, scientists, and farmers create an effective value chain because of sharing not only profit but also a responsibility. Vina T&T Group is responsible to connect directly the bank in order to help farmers loan the money. Furthermore, the company makes the contract with cooperative in order to cover all products. They also get the advice from the Fruit Collaborative in terms of seed, guide the farmers and the Institute of Agricultural Engineering is responsible for advising and providing safe fertilizer, ensuring VietGap quality. “Few enterprises have boldly invested in machinery and plantation areas, not everyone can take advantage of safe and pioneering raw materials to enter difficult markets like Vina T&T,” Dang Phuc Nguyen, Vietnam Fruit, and Vegetables Association Secretary General Vinafruit answered Forbes Vietnam by phone.
Vina T&T Group has the contract with a lot of big enterprises annually in order to ensure the stable for the company, the partners as well as the farmers. The representative of Agriculture Cooperative Safety Product in An Hoa, Chau Thanh and Dong Thap communes shared: “Vina T&T signed a stable price contract for one year, a banned substance, the company instructed farmers not to use it.” Talented employee, I will invite; in addition, the hard work watchman I will invite to work. Responsibility is the main value. Sharing is the way of living and working” Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung said. he 41-year-old’s philosophy of life and business is reflected in the company’s name. Two T’s in Vina T&T, meaning Tung and Thao, his name and his wife. Vina T&T keeps the Vietnamese name “Ben Tre coconut” on the product because it wants customers to know the origin.
Due to the consequences of war, the widespread uses a plenty of plant protection drugs, causing soil takes 3 – 10 years to recover quality. Coconut area needs three years in order to “refresh the soil” belonging the least time consuming type. All in all, planting the tree four years and the next seven years will have the fruit meet the organic standard. . This type of fruit has many advantages: need less fertilizer, clean due to thick peel, much rich nutrition, and has the advantage of seasonal, special delicious taste, can completely compete for quality. Currently, every week, Vina T&T regularly exports 100 thousand Ben Tre coconuts to the H&T Seafood retail system in the US. “The amount of coconut exported to the US continues to increase, entering the market share so far considered as the Thai products field. This order also solves the problem of output for Vietnam coconuts in the rainy season when domestic consumption is low,”Mr. Tung said.
With the soft Quang Nam’s voice, the man having the friendly smile has the hobby to tender as well as grow the tree since childhood. Mr Tung has the tendency to raise fish and bird, plant the tree. With the life philosophy: “Breed fish to nourish mind, raise birds to nurture a great ambition, plant tree to take a rest. Mr. Tung shows his idea that “Breed fish long lived, raise tree to have fruit, breed bird to sing or fly away”
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in terms of exporting tropical fresh fruits, fresh young coconut has the sharply increase. After processing, the shelf life of coconut is 80 days, dragon fruit is 30 days, mango is 30 days, longan is from 45 to 60 days. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Tran Thanh Nam said that with such long preservation ability, Vietnam fresh coconuts can completely reach different markets. Mr. Tung said: “All goals must be rooted in internal capacity. I perfect myself every day and push the target further. ”
MODERN TECHNOLOGY INVESTMENT, Building value chain is a story that few people are interested in because of big budget, little profit, high risk. To implement Global GAP (Global Good Agricultural Practice – good agricultural practice according to international standards), businesses lose about US $ 5,000 for a new fruit on an area. Basing on the statistic, 10 types of fruits are funded up to 50 thousand dollars.
But for Vina T&T, export fruit gardens are produced in accordance with the certification process of good agricultural practices VietGAP and GlobalGAP. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tung hoped that traceability could replace future certificates to reduce costs for four houses and consumers. Vina T&T is a pioneering enterprise performing traceability with VNPT, having code to check products, meeting the requirements of plantation areas, plant quarantine certificates of Plant Protection Department and the Real Quarantine Department America (APHIS) with indicators, fertilizing 30 days of harvest, etc. The potential for export development of Vietnam’s fruit and vegetable industry is still very large,” said Mr. Le Quoc Doanh, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development at the conference to promote the sustainable development of fruit trees in the southern provinces taking place in the middle of March at Long An Province. Agreeing with this view, Mr. Tung shared that “Vietnam’s strength is agriculture; this is a potential gold mine if you know how to exploit and organize with the community.”
Along with exports, the Department of Processing and Development of Agricultural Products said that the domestic market should not be ignored with a population of 95 million people, 16 million tourists and the demand for domestic consumption of about 68-70 kg / person. For the domestic market, Vietnamese people are in great demand with quality and branded products. “In the domestic market, we want to make long-term and own imprints, build a separate, modern, attractive packaging model because selling through traditional markets does not have specific quality standards”, Mr. Tung Ly solution. “Vietnamese people must also use high quality standard goods,” added Tung, adding that Vina T&T is preparing to launch Fruit T&T store chain in Ho Chi Minh City in mid-2019.
