An Nhien's journey from a grain of rice to the aspiration of a great power

Ms. An Nhien's journey from "steel factory" to "bread factory" is not only a personal story full of determination, but also a testament to the aspiration to bring Vietnamese rice into the global value chain, affirming its position in the world's green industry.

Editor's note:   From wooden bread carts at the fair, Ms. An Nhien's O Plant-based Company has become a pioneer in the plant-based industry in Vietnam. Its outstanding products are frozen rice bread made from golden brown rice, red dragon rice, whole grain black rice - retaining natural color and flavor, rich in nutrients - along with many other 100% plant-based products. Within just one year, rice bread was on supermarket shelves, was strongly welcomed by consumers and quickly attracted special attention from the international market.

Currently, the product is receiving a lot of attention from many corporations in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Europe, and an Australian corporation has proposed exclusive distribution cooperation in Australia, marking an important step forward: from a small startup, Ms. An Nhien's O Plant-based Company is bringing Vietnamese rice into the global value chain of the green industry.

Truth from illness

There are startups that do not start in a lab or a venture capital fund, but from a hospital bed. For An Nhien, the path to plant-based food started from a life-and-death struggle.

For many years, she faced a terminal illness: dozens of blood transfusions, at times only 3-4 red blood cells, her heart stopped beating for seven minutes. Doctors advised amputation and advised her to return to eating meat to "regain strength". But her body refused. She steadfastly maintained a plant-based diet, partly thanks to the influence of her husband - who had been eating plant-based for decades. A miracle happened: her health recovered, the tumor disappeared, and her blood became clean again.

Ms. An Nhien believes that whoever has the ingredients is the king.

“In the past, I read the poem “the sun of truth shines through the heart”, I did not understand or was still vague about “what is truth?!”. Now, clearly before my eyes, “sickness turns out to be a gift from God, to awaken me!”, she said. It was from that “truth” that she decided to give up a stable career in the steel industry to embark on a new path – the path of plant-based food based on clean Vietnamese rice to help bring Vietnamese rice into the global value chain or the path of affirming Vietnam’s position in the world based on the foundation of plant-based food, which is also based on the foundation of Vietnamese agriculture .

From steel industry to plant-based

Before coming to plant-based, she was a veteran entrepreneur in the heavy industry, participating in bringing many steelmaking technologies and modern steel standards to Vietnam, even providing materials for defense projects. But the deeper she went, the more she saw a paradox: no matter how much investment, Vietnam still depends on imported raw materials.

“From the steel industry, I learned a truth: whoever holds the raw materials is the king. And Vietnam always buys,” she said.

That struggle lasted for many years, until a plant-based diet saved her life. She suddenly realized: Vietnam does not lack raw materials. We are sitting on a huge treasure trove of agricultural products, especially rice. If we know how to increase the value, we can form a new industry – good for health, the environment, and the country.

Plant-based is not just vegetarian. For nearly 10 years now, the world has redefined: from vegan, vegetarian to “plant-based” – applying high technology to turn agricultural products into higher value products. Not boiled vegetables, fried tofu, but rice milk, plant-based cheese, plant-based meat from soy protein, leather from fruit peels. Behind that is an industry worth hundreds of thousands of billions of dollars, considered a “hot industry” in global green transformation.

From bread cart to rice bread

Starting her business at the age of over 40, Ms. An Nhien did not have a large investment capital or a modern factory. She only had a few wooden carts designed by her husband, which she transported to the market to sell imported plant-based sandwiches. People who tried them praised their deliciousness and were surprised to learn that they were made from plants.

But she did not stop there. When she wondered why Vietnam still exports raw rice, while the whole world eats bread, she saw the answer: bread must be made from Vietnamese rice flour.

The research journey lasted for many years, failure after failure. Trying the imported flour formula from Europe, the product was bad, dry and hard. Trying to mix many types of flour, the bread did not rise well, the taste was bland. Many times she wanted to give up. But the thought of farmers who "sell their faces to the ground, sell their backs to the sky" all year round and still remain poor made her persevere to continue!

The turning point came when she and her husband researched brown rice flour, dragon blood rice flour, and whole grain black rice flour. The baked bread was beautifully risen, fragrant, naturally sweet, and retained the bran and nutrients. The test results confirmed its high nutritional value, competitive enough to compete with any other type of bread in the world. It was a breakthrough that turned a grain of rice into a global product.

Products and domestic reception

From frozen rice bread, she and her husband and colleagues continued to research and develop more cakes, drinks, dishes... all 100% plant-based. She opened F&B stores to both sell products and create an experience space.

The Vietnamese market was surprised. At fairs, the O Plant-based booth was always crowded with customers. People tasted it and praised it and immediately asked to buy it. Normally, it takes many years for a product to enter the supermarket system, but it only took one year for rice bread to appear on the shelves - a record. From one supermarket, it spread to many other systems. Online agents also actively sought it out. Sales increased steadily.

Many customers, after trying the food, called her directly to praise it and encourage her. “That feedback is the motivation for me to continue,” she said.

Ms. Nhien presented the first successful rice bread product to the Israeli Ambassador to Vietnam.

Export opportunities

The product's differentiation quickly went beyond borders. Many foreign corporations, including large companies in the bakery industry, came to her to learn, experience and propose cooperation. They admitted that they had never succeeded despite many years of trying to make bread from rice, and proposed strategic cooperation, even exclusive distribution. To them, this was a world-class invention! Some customers even said that Vietnamese rice bread was the product that Michelin restaurants around the world had been looking for for a long time!

Meanwhile, Singapore – a country that has invested 72 billion USD in plant-based R&D – still imports raw agricultural products from Vietnam. If we bring deeply processed products into this market, Vietnam will not only be a “raw material area” but can become a plant-based center of the Asia -Pacific region.

Sell ​​out the house

Starting a plant-based business in Vietnam is not easy. Banks are not interested: cumbersome procedures, undervalued assets, and disbursement is slow. “The bank appraised my house at 10 billion, only loaned 70-75% and disbursed slowly. While I needed cash immediately to implement the project,” she said.

The only solution: sell. Houses, land, real estate – all the savings were gradually gone. At times when the market froze, she accepted to sell at a low price, as long as she had cash in time to maintain the pace of research and production. “The money at that time was not about much or little, but about being timely,” she said.

COVID-19 made things even more difficult. But she and her husband remained steadfast: selling all their assets in exchange for a chance at Vietnamese rice.

The silent companion

At every turning point, there is always a steadfast figure: the husband. He is not only a life partner, but also a key research partner. He has been eating plant-based for decades and has a solid knowledge base. He builds wooden carts himself and sells bread with his wife at the market. He tinkers with formulas, tests rice flour, and researches technology.

There were also times when she was discouraged and asked her husband: "Why do I feel like a moth?!", he asked back: "So where does a moth fly to?!", "Into the light!". When she dies, her soul will find the light and follow it! She asked herself, answered herself and realized: there is no need to wait until she dies, but while she is still alive, just follow the light of truth and so, whether dead or alive, her soul will always follow the light!

Policy barriers and dependency

The big challenge is not only capital, but also policy. When meeting with foreign investors, she found that they want monopoly, control of ideas... and then want to control raw material areas. If we follow the old way, Vietnamese people will always work for hire in their own homeland: they own the raw material areas, they hire farmers to grow, but the value, R&D, inventions... all belong to them.

Meanwhile, in Korea and Japan, the government directly subsidizes rice flour and rice bread products, encouraging consumption, reducing wheat flour imports, and strengthening food security. Vietnam has not.

“It hurts a lot when we export raw products and then import deeply processed products at high prices,” she said. Therefore, she hopes the Government will support the budget to establish a Plant-based Innovation Hub in Vietnam – a place that brings together scientists, entrepreneurs, and PhDs from within and outside the country, uniting to create momentum.

Business philosophy: Building value system, not just selling products

For her, success is not measured by the number of loaves of bread sold each day, but by creating a sustainable value system. That value is primarily for agriculture, so that rice grains can escape the situation of “raw export – refined import”, and be raised to become high-value products. It is also for public health, when plant-based foods contribute to forming healthy eating habits, preventing diseases from the root. And more broadly, it is a national value, helping Vietnam go hand in hand with the global green transformation flow, becoming a destination for international financial capital flows.

“Bread is just the beginning. I want to build an ecosystem where from a grain of rice, Vietnam can become a powerful country,” she affirmed.

From rice grains to the aspirations of a great power

Her vision goes beyond the scope of a business. She believes that if the whole world ate rice bread, Vietnam would become a real power.

Unlike steel or shipbuilding – industries that Vietnam has pursued but still depend on raw materials – agricultural products, especially rice, are its unbeatable advantage.

To realize this, she wants to advocate for the construction of a Plant-based Innovation Hub in Vietnam: a research and production center, gathering domestic and foreign intelligence, turning Vietnamese agricultural products into the foundation of the global plant-based industry. From a grain of rice, you can make bread, pizza, burger, cosmetics, functional foods...

“It was a big ambition, but it started with a very small grain of rice,” she said. For her, the illness that almost took her life became a gift to awaken her, to help her find the truth: from agricultural products, Vietnam can enter the global value chain, contributing to public health, the environment, and national aspirations.

“Many people say I am crazy, like a moth. But moths fly towards the light, not the darkness. And that light, I call the truth,” she smiled.

Starting a business for her is not to get rich, but to create a new value system: for farmers, for public health, for national status. It is an arduous journey, laughed at by many people, but also an opportunity of "heavenly time - favorable location - harmony of people" for Vietnam to step from a grain of rice into the ranks of green economic powers.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/hanh-trinh-cua-an-nhien-tu-hat-gao-den-khat-vong-cuong-quoc-2452331.html