Successful start-up from lemon

Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Phuong, in Tan Dien 2 quarter, An Hoi ward, successfully used local lemon ingredients to create a product with a unique flavor.

Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Phuong and startup products.

Previously, Ms. Phuong had many years of earning a living by trading fruits, mainly lemons and kumquats. From trading in neighboring provinces, she gradually expanded the market to Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh, the Central region... and to neighboring countries Laos and Cambodia. Every year, she buys about 200 tons of lemons from lemon growers in and outside the province.

In 2000, when selling lemons in some northern provinces, she saw people buying her lemons and salting them to export to the Chinese market. After that, some people from Ha Tinh and Ha Tay went to Ben Tre province (old) to directly buy lemons from her to salt and export to the Chinese market. Ms. Phuong recalled: “Seeing them salting lemons, I thought to myself that if others could do it, I must be able to do it!”

Thinking is doing, but success did not smile soon. The salted lemons had to be thrown away. Not giving up, Ms. Phuong continued to experiment with salted lemon products to sell to China.

In 2003, Ms. Phuong's first product was tamarind lime and tamarind lime, with ingredients including: chopped lime, tamarind, and tamarind marinated in sugar and honey. The places where she sold fresh limes included boxes of tamarind lime and tamarind lime for sale. In particular, beverage shops bought boxes of tamarind lime and tamarind lime to mix into drinks and sell for a high profit. Just like that, these two beverage products became more and more popular.

Ms. Thanh Phuong said that the facility currently has 6 products for sale on the market, including: salted lemon, dried plum lemon, dried kumquat, salted lemon with licorice, dried dried lemon jam, crispy dried kumquat jam of Hai Phuong and Ngoc Y brands. Each product she creates is unique. For example, people often use licorice to treat coughs and sore throats, she thought of extracting licorice as an ingredient along with distilled salted lemon to create Ngoc Y salted lemon with licorice product... In the production of products, she always cares about food hygiene and safety through testing by relevant departments.

In 2014, Ngoc Y lemon-lime-pickled plums reached the Top 100 famous brands-trademarks of the Mekong Delta. In 2015, it won the Golden Cup for clean and safe food for consumers' health. In 2019, Hai Phuong and Ngoc Y establishments were certified as Top 10 trusted brands-trademarks.

The survey program for high-quality products and brands awarded the title of Golden Cup for high-quality products and brands and the right to use the mark for Ngoc Y tamarind lime and tamarind lime products. Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Phuong was awarded a certificate of merit by the Provincial Women's Union for her good achievements in 5 years of implementing the Project "Supporting Women to Start a Business" in the period of 2017-2025.

In September 2024, the product set "Hai Phuong Salted Lemon, Ngoc Y Licorice Salted Lemon" was recognized by the Department of Industry and Trade (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade ) as a typical rural industrial product in the Southern region. In June 2025, the 3 products "Hai Phuong Salted Lemon", "Ngoc Y Salted Lemon", "Ngoc Y Licorice Salted Lemon" of Ms. Pham Thi Thanh Phuong were recognized as 4-star OCOP products.

Article and photos: TRAN QUOC

Source: https://baovinhlong.com.vn/kinh-te/202507/khoi-nghiep-thanh-cong-tu-trai-chanh-f6209b1/