Businesswoman Tran Thi Kieu Huong: Elevating Vietnamese agricultural products with freeze-drying technology
Choosing freeze-drying technology with many new and unique features to apply to the food industry, Ms. Tran Thi Kieu Huong has turned NFC Food Company Limited into a leading enterprise in the production and supply of dried food.
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| Businesswoman Tran Thi Kieu Huong, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of NFC Food Company Limited. |
Startup Dream
31 years ago, after graduating from a major university in Vietnam, Ms. Tran Thi Kieu Huong was selected by a famous company in Japan to study. During her studies, she witnessed the remarkable development of the neighboring country in the use of agricultural processing technology. Ms. Huong cherished the dream of bringing this technology to Vietnam.
Returning home, after a period of research and study, in 2002, Ms. Huong and her husband (who also studied in Japan and has many years of experience as a manager abroad) determined to pool all their accumulated capital and borrow more from family and banks to establish NFC Food Company Limited.
“I chose NFC (Nature food) to name the company, with the meaning that natural products and green and clean standards are put first. I am grateful for the training trip to Japan that helped me broaden my knowledge and give me more motivation to apply modern technology in the world to processing, ensuring quality and elevating Vietnamese agricultural products,” Ms. Huong shared.
As of 2023, NFC has a charter capital of 100 billion VND. The company invested in 2 factories in Nhon Trach 1 Industrial Park ( Dong Nai province) with an area of 19,000 m2; the finished product capacity supplied to the market is about 3,000 tons/year, with more than 50 product lines of spices and dried agricultural products. Of which, 35% of the output is exported to Japan, the US, Korea..., the rest serves the domestic market.
The businesswoman born in 1972 said that Vietnam has a great advantage in terms of quantity and quality of fresh fruits and vegetables, and many regional specialties. A few decades ago, most of Vietnam's agricultural products were only exported directly to a few countries, and there were not many deeply processed products that could not be preserved for a long time. This is the reason why she chose the agricultural sector to invest in.
At that time, Vietnam's agricultural sector had not yet been systematically oriented towards production. Seeing the potential and strengths of raw materials, many foreign partners wanted to seek opportunities to cooperate with Vietnamese enterprises to produce products from Vietnamese agricultural products with quality standards that met their requirements.
“When we started the company, we surveyed the market and realized that at that time, there were almost no Vietnamese businesses that dried and made spices that ensured the process and quality required by importing countries. That was also an opportunity for NFC to enter the business and test its position in the market,” the NFC founder recalled.
Pioneer in applying freeze-drying technology in Vietnam
In 2004, NFC's first products including freeze-dried vegetables and fruits were supplied to the market, targeting corporate customers. Of which, 90% of the products were exported, mainly to Japan, a small part was supplied to the domestic market.
Ms. Huong said that in the beginning, when the NFC team went to promote their products domestically, the Company's products were always compared in terms of price, because they were twice as expensive as similar products on the market. At that time, most businesses producing and trading spices and dried agricultural products did not care much about quality, but only focused on competing on price.
“At that time, businesses only dried using the traditional method of drying with coal heat, without controlling microorganisms. NFC invested in controlling microorganisms, fungi, etc., so the price increased many times, not to mention investing in machinery for freeze drying, which required a lot of capital. If we lowered the price, we would suffer a big loss. Therefore, there was a time when we could only export goods to Japan through partners who found them ourselves, and could not sell them in Vietnam as originally planned,” Ms. Huong recalled.
Despite the difficulties, she was still determined to realize her ambition, and invested a lot of money to buy the first HT-FD freeze dryer for 1 million USD in 2006.
The turning point came to NFC from there. The products produced are of high quality, helping NFC become a supplier of spices and dried foods for Ajinomoto and Acecook. Step by step affirming its reputation and brand, NFC has been chosen as a supplier by many "big names" in the domestic food industry such as Unilever, Masan, Viet Hung, Nestle, Cau Tre, Vifon, Thien Huong, A-One, Uni President, Vissan...
Sharing more about freeze-drying technology, Ms. Huong said that this technology helps the product retain its shape, flavor, color and nutrients after drying. Freeze-dried food can be preserved for a long time without using any other chemical preservatives, and moreover, it retains its flavor, color and nutrients, so it is very popular.
According to the businesswoman, this method was originally used to produce food for astronauts during space missions (eat less, but have enough nutrition). Later, Japan was one of the first countries to apply freeze-drying technology to consumer foods and she was fortunate to experience, learn, and then bring it back to apply in Vietnam.
Not only investing in modern technology, with the dream of raising the level of Vietnamese agricultural products, since the establishment of the Company, in addition to purchasing vegetables, tubers, and fruits from farmers, Ms. Huong has invested in 2 raw material farms to strictly control inputs. The 30-hectare farm in Long An specializes in tropical agricultural products and the 9-hectare farm in Dak Nong specializes in temperate agricultural products.
“When there are many partners signing regular contracts and having specific purchasing plans, businesses must be self-sufficient in supply and ensure quality right from the start by growing and managing themselves. Our country has not yet tightly planned raw material areas in localities, so if we are not proactive, in case of natural disasters or crop failures, businesses will not be able to respond in time,” Ms. Huong analyzed.
Make your mark with a series of private brands
If previously, NFC was only known as a leading processing enterprise for domestic and foreign food industry "giants", then from 2022, with the desire to directly bring high-tech products manufactured by the Company to consumers, NFC has entered the retail market with high-quality products such as NATAS spices, I.SOUP freeze-dried instant soup cubes, I.YAUA freeze-dried yogurt and I.FRUITZ freeze-dried fruit.
The birth of the I.SOUP, I.YAUA, I.FRUITZ, NATAS brands helped NFC take a step forward in its journey to position its own brand.
The businesswoman shared that in the beginning, NFC provided products to corporate customers and processed for partners, so it did not pay much attention to marketing and brand promotion. However, when deciding to build its own brand, the Founder understood that working with the press was the first choice to increase brand awareness and affirm its name.
“If a business produces quality products that are not widely promoted through media channels, the information will not reach users. Therefore, NFC will accompany the press and media in the process of building and developing the brand,” emphasized the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NFC.
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