Starting a business with gac fruit

From a dedicated youth union secretary at the commune level, Tran Thanh Phuc, residing in Thanh Dong commune, has started his own business and created 9 unique products from gac fruit.

Mr. Tran Thanh Phuc introduces gac fruit products to visitors at the Rach Gia, An Giang OCOP Trade Promotion Fair 2025. Photo: KIEU DIEM

I met Mr. Phuc at the Rach Gia, An Giang 2025 OCOP Product Trade Promotion Fair while he was enthusiastically introducing each bottle of gac fruit oil and each red lipstick to visitors.

To create these products, in 2019, Mr. Phuc started with the idea of ​​mobilizing about 20 young people in the commune to grow gac fruit for fresh sale, aiming to help them start their own businesses. Instead of just selling fresh fruit, Mr. Phuc dreamed of increasing the value of gac fruit by processing it and creating value-added products. He meticulously researched, experimented, and overcame many failures to create nine unique products from gac fruit, including: essential oil, lipstick, wine, vermicelli, pho, massage oil, gac fruit and passion fruit jam with rock sugar, cooking oil, and gac fruit sauce. Each product not only offers nutritional value and health benefits but also opens up new avenues for exploiting the value of local agricultural products, helping young people increase their income and affirming the creative spirit of rural youth.

According to Mr. Phuc, gac fruit is a highly nutritious fruit, good for human health, containing many vitamins and antioxidants... which help improve eyesight, beautify the skin, benefit cardiovascular health, lower blood cholesterol, prevent cancer, and slow the proliferation of cancer cells... Each product is the result of a long journey of experimentation, adjustment, and improvement. Some products, like gac lipstick, took up to 6 months of research to ensure the right firmness, good moisturizing properties, and to prevent dry lips. Gac rice noodles and pho also required many trials to find the right type of rice for the noodles to be chewy, retain their natural color and flavor. All products are made entirely from natural ingredients, without artificial colors or preservatives.

Not only does Mr. Phuc focus on creating quality products, but he also makes use of every part of the gac fruit, from the flesh and seeds to the peel. He uses the gac flesh as food, and presses the seeds to extract oil. He even repurposes the seemingly discarded peel as fish feed.

Currently, Mr. Phuc's gac fruit products are available on e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, TikTok, and Facebook, and are distributed by several dealers in the province. Prices range from 25,000 to 150,000 VND depending on the type. Several supermarket chains in Phu Quoc Special Economic Zone and Long Xuyen ward have expressed interest in collaborating to stock his products on their shelves.

Amidst the vibrant red of gac fruit displayed in his booth, Mr. Phuc shared: "I hope that products made from gac fruit from my hometown will become more widely known so that young people in the commune can have a stable source of income." For Mr. Phuc, each time he participates in a fair is not only about selling goods but also an opportunity to listen to feedback to improve his products, learn from experience, learn how to approach consumers, and spread the belief in entrepreneurship.

What is admirable about Mr. Phuc is not only his dynamism and creativity but also his spirit of sharing and spreading knowledge. After the merger, Mr. Phuc is now a member of the Party Committee's Inspection Committee of Thanh Dong commune, no longer the commune-level Youth Union secretary, but he remains enthusiastic in the youth entrepreneurship movement, readily providing technical guidance and sharing his experience in growing and processing gac fruit with young people in the commune.

Phuc's greatest motivation for perseverance is not only his entrepreneurial aspirations but also his desire to contribute to creating sustainable livelihoods for rural youth. "I'm not doing this alone. I'm doing it to encourage others to join me. I believe that if every rural youth knows how to leverage local advantages, innovate their methods, and connect their products with the real needs of the market; when each young person finds their own path to entrepreneurship in their hometown, they will build a sustainable business," Phuc expressed.

KIEU DIEM

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/khoi-nghiep-tu-trai-gac-a463965.html