The aspiration to spread Vietnamese values of 3 female entrepreneurs with the last name Luong

(CPV) – Same generation 8x, 3 girls from 3 different regions of the country but all have the same last name Luong and are members of a project related to supporting businesses for development purposes. 3 different personalities but meet in the passion and burning desire to "spread Vietnamese values" to the region and the world , supporting more and more people to do the job, live fully with the job...

Meeting and witnessing the process of building and developing 3 businesses owned by the 3 girls above, we can appreciate more the value of the spirit of determination "Nothing is difficult/Only fear of not being persistent" along with enthusiasm, passion and responsibility, daring to pursue the dream to the end, daring to take responsibility to the end with the startup process not only full of roses but also many thorns.

Luong Thanh Hanh breathes life into Vietnamese silk and linen

Meeting Luong Thanh Hanh, the "beautiful silk girl", only saw a gentle, graceful appearance, but hidden behind that slender girl was a determination, perseverance, endurance and especially bravery in choosing to breathe life into the traditional craft village.

Coming to the Hanh Silk exhibition space at Van Ho Exhibition Center (No. 2, Hoa Lu, Hanoi ), we could not help but be surprised and amazed by the rich and diverse silk products displayed and introduced here, along with the silk weaving models that were vividly and impressively recreated. The unique and different features are shown in the silk products under the Hanh Silk brand, which are not mass-produced but are handmade, requiring the meticulous diligence of the artisans. Each product is a manual production process combined with the creativity and skillful hands of Nam Cao weavers along with unique hand-painted motifs, so the cultural value crystallized in the product is enormous.

Starting with the idea of restoring the production of the traditional craft village and creating an export brand for the farmers of Nam Cao linen weaving village, Hanh encountered many doubts. With her perseverance in mobilizing and working with the villagers, her enthusiasm was rewarded. Since 2016, Nam Cao Linen Weaving Cooperative was established with 30 members, chaired by Luong Thanh Hanh. In addition, the entire Nam Cao commune has about 90 households returning to the weaving profession to supply linen silk to the Cooperative and expand the mulberry growing and silkworm raising areas and form a closed production and supply chain. After more than 4 years, by 2020, Hanhsilk had 2 raw material areas, meeting a variety of export orders, from linen fabric, silk, towels, silk bracelets, hand-embroidered silk bedding and especially the product line of 100% natural silk face towels and bath towels...

Talking about her somewhat reckless journey of hunting for a linen craft village to nurture her ambition, Luong Thanh Hanh recalled that at that time she had a stable and high-income job in the interior design industry but in the end decided to put everything aside to travel all over Vietnam to learn about linen. This decision of hers surprised those around her and her relatives, who thought it was too risky. “Many people discouraged me, but I still decided to travel across the country to learn about hemp and discovered that Nam Cao hemp is completely different, completely handmade. The old people and women of the Northern Delta work hard, soaking their hands in cold water in the winter and summer to spin hemp without any complaints. There are people who are nearly 80 years old this year, still working enthusiastically, their hands nimbly spinning the thread, without even looking at the cocoon to pull out the thread. These images have been deeply imprinted in my mind and made me realize that my decision, although risky, is very necessary for the people,” Luong Thanh Hanh recalled.

Luong Thanh Hanh shared: “In addition to creating jobs for people, we also arouse the spirit and pride of the traditional craft village for people, so that people who retire early, over 60 years old can still participate in Hanhsilk's production stages. Nearly 80% of the workers are over 60 years old, the elderly men and women can all do it. With a diverse perspective, new ways of doing things, when building the ecological silk weaving factory model, Hanh Silk thought of linking with the tourism sector, where the factory itself would be a place to welcome international tour groups. Reality shows that this direction is completely correct and effective, on average each month Nam Cao has welcomed about 4-5 domestic and foreign tour groups. “When tourism develops, it will increase people's income from services and at the same time create excitement for people when working. We also hope that instead of having to go abroad to sell, we can export on the spot to tourists”.

Hanh Silk's export market map since 2017 has added Thailand, in addition to Korea, Japan, Russia and Germany. 80% of Hanh Silk's revenue comes from exports, only 20% comes from the domestic market, so Luong Thanh Hanh's consecutive trips to market the products are almost constant. Hanh said that after each trip "bringing bells to strike foreign lands" are a series of days of research, product improvement, meeting the strict requirements of each market. Moreover, not every trip gives immediate results.

Cherishing and being passionate about traditional cultural values, persevering to the end with the somewhat reckless journey of hunting for a silk craft village to nurture her aspiration is also the secret for Hanh Silk to develop to this day. “Eat real, work real” is the business motto of Hanh Silk, so that everyone can verify from what Hanh Silk does.

Luong Thi Ngoc Tram with the dream of organic coffee and the journey of building Quang Tri specialty coffee

Confiding in us, the honest coffee girl Luong Thi Ngoc Tram shared that Pun Coffee was founded in 2019 with the extremely simple thought that establishing a business would make it easier to sign a sales contract, while knowledge of business administration, human resource management, and finance and accounting was almost zero. As a business headquartered in a border area, business management was very sketchy and loose, but after a period of operation, the brand gained a foothold in the market, the founders and leaders of the business began to worry about business administration. In 2021, Pun Coffee was fortunate to be approved by Oxfam - CSIP to participate in the EFD support package for social impact businesses.

Accordingly, Pun Coffee is trained in general knowledge from business management, finance, and human resources. From concentrated training to direct 1:1 training between experts and businesses. “We have rearranged our business operations after attending EFD training courses, there is no overlap in work, business management and operations become easier, especially financial management and marketing strategy development. Currently, Pun Coffee has successfully exceeded the original plan, rising to the top of the Vietnamese specialty coffee market, becoming the first unit to export Khe Sanh coffee to the US, winning many high awards in international roasted coffee rankings…” - Luong Thi Ngoc Tram shared

Pun Coffee is a socially oriented enterprise, Pun Coffee's business philosophy is closely linked to community responsibility, specifically improving sustainable livelihoods for Van Kieu ethnic minorities through high-quality, valuable coffee products, establishing a coffee farming ecosystem towards sustainable agriculture, adapting to climate change and protecting the environment. The 4-year journey (2019-2023), 4 years of Pun Coffee never faltering and 4 years with the village carrying the European dream from the small corner of Truong Son sky. Arabica Khe Sanh Quang Tri produced by Pun Coffee is now ranked 5th in the world after other giants. And the journey to bring Khe Sanh coffee into the top world specialty coffees has initially realized the strategic vision that Pun built since the beginning of 2023, gradually implementing "Pun Coffee is a global specialty coffee that is sustainably cultivated with biodiversity on the principle of respecting the natural environment and safety for related factors.

In 2022, Pun Coffee was honored to be one of 30 outstanding SIBs receiving support from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Canadian Embassy in Vietnam. Recently, Pun Coffee was in the Top 10 ESG Vietnam initiatives 2023 - a program to support sustainable business enterprises within the framework of cooperation between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment. This is one of the efforts to contribute to the implementation of Vietnam's Green Growth Strategy for the period 2021-2030 and Decision 167/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in the private economic sector in Vietnam. At the same time, Pun Coffee also won the First Prize for business ideas associated with the Forest value chain with the theme "Community Tourism" 2023. This is an award to support business development of the WWF International Network - New Generation Forestry.

Clearly aware that roasting and grinding coffee will generate too much CO2 in the atmosphere, causing the greenhouse effect and global warming, so businesses need to be responsible to society and improve the environment; "coffee girl" Luong Thi Ngoc Tram shared, "We are just a small group in the entire Khe Sanh coffee ecosystem, but we always determine that each person contributes, joins hands to raise the level, bringing Khe Sanh Quang Tri coffee to a new level - the level of specialty coffee". Currently, the business has mobilized the Van Kieu people to both develop intercropping coffee trees with forestry development, and build clean coffee growing areas to create a stable raw material area. In addition, through coffee growing activities, it also integrates the role and position of Van Kieu ethnic women in the family. At the same time, Pun Coffee is also starting to build a Quang Tri specialty coffee experience point on the western branch of Ho Chi Minh Road, collaborating with travel agencies to build a coffee tour program to promote Quang Tri coffee. More importantly, the forest planting project associated with Pun Coffee's coffee garden is taking shape day by day, although there are still many difficulties.

It can be seen that the dream of covering organic coffee with large shade trees, providing shade for coffee gardens, was kindled with all the passion, gratitude and desire to restore, consolidate and expand the value of Khe Sanh coffee, Quang Tri, and has been gradually realized with certainty and confidence.

Luong Thi My Hue enhances the value of medicinal plants in the Central Highlands

From the idea of bringing the quintessence of Central Highlands herbs to customers, the project "Linking ethnic minority women to develop Kon Tum specialty OCOP products" by Luong Thi My Hue won the second prize in the 2021 Women's Entrepreneurship Competition organized by the Vietnam Women's Union. The project was implemented since 2019, helping women in Ngoc Tu and Van Lem - two particularly difficult communes of Dak To district, contributing to creating sustainable livelihoods for ethnic minorities through the cultivation of regional medicinal herbs such as Ngoc Linh and the production of Kon Tum specialties. 90% of the company's employees and beneficiaries of its business activities are women.

The COVID-19 pandemic with many fluctuations in the market, distribution channels as well as changes in customer needs and behaviors has led to many difficulties for Tay Nguyen Herbal Medicine Company. However, during this period, Ms. Luong Thi My Hue and the company have made efforts to adapt to adversity by launching a new product line - Cold-relieving leaves. The convenient dry leaf bags, including herbs such as bamboo leaves, mint, lemongrass, cinnamon, basil, perilla, and Vietnamese balm, have been well received by the market and helped the company overcome the difficult period.

Entering the post-COVID-19 period, products adapted to the pandemic have decreased in output, once again forcing Luong Thi My Hue to change her strategy to adapt to the new normal. The female director shared: The company has developed a plan to launch a new product line combined with strengthening market access activities and developing diverse sales channels to reach target customers. The new strategy not only promises to bring many economic benefits but also brings many positive social impacts such as supporting the raising of awareness of ethnic minorities about forest protection, developing sustainable livelihoods for local people, solving jobs for immigrants and ethnic minority workers forced to return to their villages due to unemployment due to the impact of COVID-19, while bringing safe, high-quality products to consumers.

Kon Tum is a region with a cool climate all year round, with many species of natural medicinal plants that grow well, suitable for ecological and soil conditions. The local resources are still very large but people do not know how to exploit them effectively. In addition, the development of medicinal herbs is still spontaneous and small-scale; cultivation, care and post-harvest processing techniques have not been standardized... To promote that potential and advantage, Ms. Luong Thi My Hue has cooperated with local people to build raw material areas according to GACP - WHO standards with medicinal herbs such as Ngoc Linh ginseng, wild bitter melon, ginger, passionflower... The products of Tay Nguyen Herbal Medicine Company Limited called DATO are opening up a new direction for Tay Nguyen herbs.

Recognizing the importance of branding local products, DATO always focuses on all stages from cultivation to production, building product stories and distributing to the market. From these efforts, DATO not only enhances the value of local medicinal plants but also contributes to changing the thinking, farming methods and income of ethnic minority women.

DATO was honored to be one of 29 outstanding enterprises to receive the award of the ISEECOVID project. The project is funded by the Agency for Enterprise Development (AED - Ministry of Planning and Investment) in collaboration with the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) with the goal of strengthening the resilience and recovery capacity of enterprises creating social impacts. Recently, DATO was also in the Top 10 ESG initiatives in Vietnam 2023 - a program to support sustainable business enterprises within the framework of cooperation between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment. This is one of the efforts to contribute to the implementation of Vietnam's Green Growth Strategy for the period 2021-2030 and Decision 167/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister to promote sustainable and inclusive growth in the private economic sector in Vietnam.

The initial idea was simply the desire to become a bridge between the ethnic minorities in Ngoc Linh area and a very potential and large consumer market out there, while maintaining and developing the precious medicinal resources on the spot, creating a long-term livelihood for the people. The journey of Tay Nguyen herbs began like that. Starting from nothing, with only ambition, effort and love for the land and people in the deep green forest...

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