Simple image of Hoang Phuong and Minh Hong. Photo: NVCC
Leaving behind the stage lights and small screen, TV MC Hoang Phuong returned to her village in Lang Son , and with her sister Minh Hong started a business with traditional products.
By creating content on TikTok and Facebook, the two sisters turned corn into a digital specialty, achieving enviable success with revenue of nearly 100 million VND in just their first livestream, opening a new path for regional agriculture .
What secret made the MC leave the city and return to the village?
The decision of Hoang Phuong - a famous TV MC to leave the city to return to the village has caused her family and herself to face many worries. "I used to think that I would stick with television and art for a long time. But then the pandemic came as a forced pause that gave me time to look back. What am I living for? And what do I really want to do?", Phuong shared about the turning point in her life. The concern about her hometown's people struggling with agricultural products urged her to return.
Accompanying her is her older sister Minh Hong, who is familiar with farming and has just gone through a difficult period when her agricultural tourism company went bankrupt due to the pandemic. In that context, the idea of producing healthy noodles from corn kernels for an agricultural export company opened a new direction for Ms. Hong.
"I spent 2 weeks considering and decided to return to my hometown to build a factory to process corn into noodles," she said. That bold decision was absolutely supported by Hoang Phuong. The two sisters, both children of farmers, shared the dream of getting rich from the value of the land.
Simple image of Hoang Phuong and Minh Hong. Photo: NVCC
The first product, Corn Noodles, seemed simple but was a challenging journey. Recreating non-GMO corn and creating noodles from this gluten-free grain was a difficult process.
“For nearly a year, the noodles kept clumping, breaking, and sticking together... sometimes when put into the machine, not even a single strand came out. Tons of corn were thrown away, several notebooks filled up, and the thread of experience could never be drawn out,” Ms. Minh Hong recalled. The biggest difficulty was not only in the technology but also in the challenge of faith when failures occurred one after another.
Undaunted, the sisters decided to try a different approach and thus, Old Sticky Corn was born. This is a product restored from the native old sticky corn variety, hand-processed on a wood stove, not fried in oil, and without preservatives.
“Each popped popcorn tells a story about childhood, about the season, and the journey of persistently preserving the ancient corn variety that seemed to have been forgotten,” said Minh Hong, a Nung girl who quit her job as a TV MC to grow native sticky corn and sell it for a million dong per kilogram.
How did Hong Phuong explode on digital platforms?
The idea of the Ban Phuong Hong brand was born from the desire to return to the roots and tell the true story of the homeland, farmers, and local agricultural products. This name not only reminds us of the village but is also a combination of the two sisters' names.
Sisters Minh Hong and Hoang Phuong, who created Ban Phuong Hong from their love for the land and traditional agricultural products. Photo: NVCC.
To bring the product to the digital market, the two sisters made TikTok and Facebook videos themselves. “My sister and I came up with ideas, then took turns holding the camera, writing content, recording, editing clips – we did everything ourselves. There was a day when we filmed at noon, the cameraman was sweating profusely, the actor was talking and watching the fire crackle, but it was so much fun!”, Hoang Phuong said.
Investing in channel building and content creation has brought impressive results. “Our main revenue comes from e-commerce platforms including Facebook and TikTok. It has grown especially strongly when we invested in creating more videos and livestreaming more frequently,” said Ms. Minh Hong.
A very memorable milestone for the two sisters was their first official livestream with revenue reaching nearly 100 million VND, a huge feat for the two sisters.
Thanks to her short videos that tell authentic stories, her channel has attracted a large number of followers and new customers. Many clean food units have also proactively contacted her to place orders, helping her popcorn products appear in many supermarket chains across the three regions.
The reaction of the villagers when seeing their hometown products on air was also very positive. From initial surprise, the villagers gradually turned to pride and believed that “our hometown’s agricultural products can really go out into the world!”. The encouragement from the community gave the two sisters great motivation.
Ban Phuong Hong brand production workshop in the village. Photo: NVCC
Currently, Ban Phuong Hong has created stable jobs for 14 regular workers and 20-25 seasonal workers during peak season. The USDA-certified organic farming area also creates jobs for 4-5 people.
In the future, the two sisters plan to not only stop at the main products but also expand product lines from Lang Son agricultural products, and at the same time build their own raw material areas according to USDA organic standards.
This not only helps diversify the source of goods for e-commerce platforms, but also ensures quality and builds long-term reputation.
Phuong Hong is showing the great potential of Vietnamese agricultural products in the digital market, opening a new and promising path for traditional agricultural business models.
Their story is a reminder that, with the right potential and creative application of technology, any product can find a place and achieve success on online trading platforms.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tu-mon-xua-que-nha-den-doanh-thu-tram-trieu-bi-kip-ban-ky-uc-tren-tiktok-2411137.html
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