Hoa Chi An: Digitalization to participate in the world flower market

Hoa Chi An, a familiar name to Dalat flower growers, is in a strong transformation. Digitalization to produce the most beautiful lily branches and hydrangeas, digitalization to participate in the leading lily seed production chain in the Netherlands; Hoa Chi An Company Limited is transforming towards the world playground.

Mr. Ho Vu Quoc Hung controls the garden via QR code

Mr. Ho Vu Quoc Hung, young director of Hoa Chi An Company Limited, introduced the management system via QR code. Mr. Hung said that each flower bed in Hoa Chi An farm will have a unique code. Scanning the code will show general information, cultivation process, quantity, sowing date, variety, harvest date... Each worker will also have their own management code. When workers take care of the flower beds, scanning the code will interact in real time. The manager will immediately receive information, closely following the work process of each worker at each location.

Mr. Ho Vu Quoc Hung shared that Hoa Chi An Company purchased a global software provided by a reputable supplier. From that foundation, Hoa Chi An built a cultivation process for each type of plant. While many flower businesses grow many types of flowers, at Hoa Chi An, following many years of tradition, they specialize in cultivating two types of flowers - lilies and Carla flowers. Mr. Hung shared that with the goal of Vietnamizing and popularizing two names with good meanings, lily - lily and carla - vien hi, Hoa Chi An Company has tried to widely use the two Vietnamized names in all transactions. Mr. Hung also commented: “Digitalizing the production process and all management systems in the enterprise will help improve management skills, interact through digital space, reduce costs, and at the same time, managers can immediately monitor every step in the operation of the entire enterprise. If the enterprise management system is not digitalized, the enterprise will fall behind and cannot keep up with the very vibrant market every day. With Hoa Chi An, transforming from a family business, we apply digital management to ensure we keep up with the changes in the flower industry.”

Hoa Chi An Company Limited also transformed its digital management to participate in a step in the global lily - lily production and cultivation chain. Mr. Ho Vu Quoc Hung affirmed that lily bulb production has always been the strength of the Dutch. Throughout the production process, the seed is the most important step to have beautiful flower branches to serve flower lovers. In the past, Vietnamese flower businesses often only stopped at the stage of buying bulbs, transporting them, partly cultivating them directly, and partly selling them to small businesses and farmers. Many businesses can use a production process with cold storage to store old bulbs, then return to cultivate them a second or third time. However, flower branches cultivated from bulbs dormant in cold storage often produce short, small plants, few flowers, and low value. After 1 or 2 crops of bulbs dormant in cold storage, lily bulbs will degenerate to the point of having to stop production.

Instead of re-dormant lily bulbs, Hoa Chi An is participating in the tissue culture process with a large Dutch bulb production partner. The company has built a tissue culture room with a culture box, trained technicians, imported tissue culture bulbs, then produced tissue culture bulbs and exported them back to the partner in the Netherlands. Mr. Hung added that producing other seedlings is simple, but lily bulbs require very harsh conditions. The tissue culture bulbs produced by Hoa Chi An are left to sleep in the fields, under the snow, for two years in the Netherlands to produce finished bulbs. Hoa Chi An will buy back the finished bulbs from its partner, ship them back to Vietnam to plant and distribute widely to businesses and farmers in the region. In 2023, Hoa Chi An is testing 100,000 tissue culture bulbs and preparing to export them back to the Netherlands. According to Mr. Quoc Hung, Da Lat can be considered the tissue culture center of the Asian region, with extremely suitable conditions in terms of weather, climate and high-quality human resources in the tissue culture industry.

Mr. Phan Thanh Sang - Chairman of the Dalat Flower Association also assessed that the tissue culture export industry of Dalat still has a lot of room for development. Currently, tissue culture enterprises in the Association export tissue plants in very large quantities, reaching 35 million units in 2023. However, the demand of foreign partners is still open, ready for Dalat enterprises to expand tissue plant production. Hoa Chi An Company's participation in a step in the production process of Dutch lily bulbs is also a very bold step, helping Vietnamese flower growing enterprises participate in an international playground.

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