Young man gives up thousand dollar salary to return home to make chili sauce

Give up thousand dollar salary

Visiting the chili sauce production facility of Mr. Le Minh Cuong (31 years old, on Ba Trieu Street, Thanh Hoa City, Thanh Hoa Province) in the last days of 2023, the atmosphere here was quite bustling, from the boss to the workers were rushing to make chili sauce, producing batches of goods to serve people near and far to celebrate Tet.

Taking us to visit the chili sauce processing area, Mr. Cuong said that the chance to make chili sauce was quite coincidental. Nearly 10 years ago, after graduating with a degree in tourism from a university in Singapore, he returned to Ho Chi Minh City to work for a foreign company, with a salary that was considered quite good at that time.

Although he was paid a salary of thousands of dollars, after about 2 years of working there (in 2016), he decided to quit his job at this company and return to his hometown in Thanh Hoa.

Mr. Le Minh Cuong's traditional chili sauce processing facility. Photo: Quach Du

“The reason I made that decision was because, when I returned to my hometown, I saw that the chili plants that people grew had dropped in price, and even could not be sold and had to be thrown all over the fields. From then on, the thought flashed in my mind, how to help people consume chili. Since then, the idea of making chili sauce has always urged me,” Mr. Cuong shared.

According to Mr. Cuong, thinking is one thing, doing is another, because if you start making chili sauce, what needs to be done, how. However, with the enthusiasm of youth, with the determination to do it, he learned how to make it, surveyed the current market. Through that, he realized that there are many types of chili sauce on the market, but most of them are chili sauces produced on an industrial scale containing additives. Meanwhile, traditional chili sauces are very few.

Mr. Le Minh Cuong shares about the time he decided to quit his thousand-dollar job to return to his hometown to make chili sauce. Photo: Q.D — Mr. Le Minh Cuong shares about the time he decided to quit his thousand-dollar job to return to his hometown to make chili sauce. Photo: Quach Du

From the above analysis, he decided to learn, explore and research how to make traditional chili sauce. At first, he searched for information on the internet, in books and newspapers, then consulted the traditional chili sauce recipes of experienced people...

“After equipping myself with basic knowledge about making chili sauce, I started working. In fact, there is a big difference between theory and practice. It took me many months, with more than 40 attempts to make chili sauce but all failed. Fortunately, after that, in the next attempts, the product was successful,” Mr. Cuong recalled.

According to Mr. Cuong, the successful testing of additive-free chili sauce is just the beginning, because the process of making chili sauce still faces many other difficulties such as: chili plants in Thanh Hoa only have one crop per year; the chili harvest time needs to be very fast (to avoid the chili being spoiled), in addition, problems with capital, people, machinery, market... are also not small obstacles.

Produces tens of thousands of bottles per year

Despite facing many difficulties, Mr. Cuong chose to untie each "knot", and then through a process, bottles of chili sauce named "Spico - Vietnamese chili, Vietnamese soul" were officially born. According to Mr. Cuong, to produce a complete chili sauce, he had to go through 12 steps, from harvesting chili, processing, fermenting..., packaging and supplying to the market.

The ingredients to make chili sauce are soaked and fermented by Mr. Cuong in earthenware jars. Photo: Q.D — The ingredients to make chili sauce are soaked and fermented by Mr. Cuong in earthenware jars. Photo: QD

Along with launching his chili sauce products, Mr. Cuong has proactively sought out safe chili raw materials, complying with the production process according to VietGAP standards. Over the years, his company has launched many products such as: Northern chili sauce, Southern chili sauce, less spicy chili sauce, special spicy chili sauce, vegetarian chili sauce and chili sauce for children.

“Currently, the company consumes about 8 to 10 tons of chili each year, the main raw materials are imported from people in districts such as Hoang Hoa, Thieu Hoa, Thach Thanh. Each year, the company sells about 50,000 bottles of chili sauce of all kinds to the market, creating jobs for about 10 to 15 workers,” said Mr. Cuong.

Every year, Mr. Cuong's company produces and supplies tens of thousands of bottles of chili sauce to the market. Photo: Q.D — Every year, Mr. Cuong's company produces and supplies tens of thousands of bottles of chili sauce to the market. Photo: QD

Also according to Mr. Cuong, in 2022, his company's Phuc Loc Tho chili sauce and tomato sauce products were recognized by the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province as 3-star OCOP products.

Talking about his future plans, Mr. Le Minh Cuong said that he hopes to expand the scale, expand the raw material area and purchase more products for farmers in the near future. In addition, he also cherishes the idea of researching and creating many other product lines from agricultural products grown in his hometown Thanh Hoa, meeting the needs and tastes of customers not only domestically but also internationally. Through that, he also wants to promote the people, country and cuisine of Vietnam.

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