Construction engineer "invests" in wild plants growing on sand
Báo Dân trí•15/10/2024
(Dan Tri) - Wishing to get rich from his homeland, a male engineer in Phu Yen decided to "spend money" planting cactus. After 6 years, this somewhat reckless and "crazy" direction has brought unexpected results.
Mr. Tran Van Vu (38 years old) was born in a coastal countryside in Hoa Hiep Nam ward, Dong Hoa town, Phu Yen province. The characteristic of this land is the image of cactus (local people call it dragon tongue, scientific name is Nopalea cochenillifera) growing wild on the dry sand dunes. Growing up, Mr. Vu left his hometown to go to university in Ho Chi Minh City and became a construction engineer. After a period of working in Ho Chi Minh City, through books and newspapers, Mr. Vu accidentally read information about the nutritional active ingredients and medicinal uses of the dragon tongue plant.
Mr. Tran Van Vu decided to start a business from dragon tongue tree (Photo: Trung Thi).
Learning more, the Phu Yen native realized that the dragon tongue plant has great economic value in countries like the US, Mexico, and India, but in Vietnam, few people have researched, invested, and developed this plant into an economic commodity. "The dragon tongue plant has many nutrients, so since I was a child, I saw my parents and villagers pick it to boil and cook soup. It has a strong vitality in a dry environment, so it is very easy to grow. I want to grow and get rich with this plant on my homeland," said Mr. Vu. Thinking is doing, in 2018, Mr. Vu left Ho Chi Minh City for Phu Yen, focusing on starting a business. From an area of 300m2, he now owns 5 hectares of cactus planted in Dong Hoa town and Tuy Hoa city. Seeing him spend money to grow wild plants, many people doubted and advised him. "At first, many people said I was crazy to grow dragon tongue plants," said Mr. Vu. According to Mr. Vu, dragon tongue can be harvested after 1 year of planting with a yield of 50-80 tons/ha. The purchase price is 2,000-3,000 VND/kg.
Dragon tongue tree was invested by Mr. Vu to plant in Dong Hoa town (Photo: Trung Thi).
Although dragon tongue plants are easy to grow, finding a way to process them and let people across the country know and use them is not easy. "In the early years, I processed dragon tongue to "hit" the food industry, combining it with rice to make vermicelli, pho, rice paper... However, the cost of food production was high but the revenue was insignificant, so the profit was low," said Mr. Vu. Not discouraged, Mr. Vu sought out experienced experts in the fields of biotechnology, chemistry, food... for support. After researching, he decided to switch to the cosmetics industry, applying the technology of extracting nutrients from fresh dragon tongue. Spending billions to buy machinery and asking for guidance and advice from experts, Mr. Vu has now launched many types of cosmetics from dragon tongue plants, which have been well received by users. Currently, the cosmetics industry brings Mr. Vu a revenue of about 200 million VND/month. From the activity of preparing cosmetics extracted from the tree without branches, leaves, and thorns, Mr. Vu's 2 production workshops have helped create jobs for 20 local workers, including 10 seasonal workers with an income of 200,000 VND/day and 10 regular workers with a salary of 4.5-10 million VND/month.
The process of slicing dragon tongue to extract essence for cosmetics is done by machine (Photo: Trung Thi).
"I have been working here for nearly a year with an income of about 4.5 million VND/month. Although the salary is not high compared to the city, Mr. Vu's workshop is close to home, I don't have to spend money on rent or travel expenses, so I feel quite satisfied and want to continue working there," said Ms. Tien, a worker at the workshop. Mr. Tran Van Tri, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Hiep Nam Ward, said that previously, dragon tongue plants grew wild around the fence, and local people picked young branches to cook soup and eat raw. "For a long time, the value of this cactus species was limited to cooking around the kitchen, but now Mr. Vu has boldly invested in planting and processing dragon tongue plants in the direction of green economic development. From the local side, we are very supportive of this model," Mr. Tri said. The Chairman of Hoa Hiep Nam Ward also confirmed that Mr. Vu's workshop has made positive contributions, creating more jobs for local people.
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