Pulling up giant lotus roots from the mud to make specialty powder, good for the heart, Nam Dinh village boys become rich

Up to now, his products: lotus root tea, lotus root starch have been well received by the market with many positive signals, contributing to bringing efficiency, increasing income for families and lotus growers, beautifying the local landscape and environment.

Born and raised in Cu Tru 3 village, Phuong Dinh commune (Truc Ninh district, Nam Dinh province) - a purely agricultural countryside, even when he was a student at the Vietnam Agricultural Academy, although he witnessed the hardships and difficulties of farmers, Vu Van Anh always nurtured the dream of using the knowledge he had learned to get rich from agriculture.

In 2015, when he returned to fulfill his dream, he boldly rented an area of ​​land for digging and fighting in Tien Hai district ( Thai Binh ) to invest in building a comprehensive farm.

However, reality is not like thinking, all beginnings are difficult! Due to lack of experience and reasonable production orientation, Vu Van Anh failed.

“Back then, I followed the trend, seeing what other people were growing and raising that was “hot” and I followed suit. But by the time I had finished products to sell, the market was saturated, leading to difficulty in selling and not getting a good price. I lost 300 million VND in capital and all the effort I had put in for nearly 4 years (from 2015 to 2018),” he recalled.

Being an optimist, he consoled himself that after failure, he had learned a lesson about starting a business: you have to invest in thinking, and if you want to succeed, you have to have creative ideas to make a difference in the market.

And then he saw the good in the bad, that is, on the farm area he rented there was a pond for growing lotus, so he also "got into the business" of selling lotus seeds and fresh lotus roots to traders in Hai Phong .

Leaving behind his dream of getting rich from the farm and returning to his hometown, he still maintains relationships with customers who buy and sell fresh lotus seeds and lotus roots.

But "misfortunes never come singly", after the failure with the farm, the lotus seed and lotus root business was going smoothly, but in the following years 2020-2021, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out strongly, the whole country had to practice social distancing, making it impossible to sell his fresh lotus root products immediately.

This type of fresh product spoils very quickly and cannot be preserved for a long time. At that time, he thought of making a product that could increase the preservation time of lotus root.

After researching, he realized that lotus root is quite similar to cassava root, also has starch, and can be processed into starch like cassava. This is a family tradition, so he decided to invest deeply in this product.

Mr. Vu Van Anh, Truc Chinh commune, Truc Ninh district (Nam Dinh province) and lotus root products produced by his facility.

In 2022, Vu Van Anh rented more than 3 sao of public land in Binh Thanh village, Truc Chinh commune to invest in a factory to process lotus root products. He invested in buying grinding machines, powder filters, dryers, and vacuum machines, ensuring a closed mechanization of the production process.

To have a stable raw material area, he has linked up with 2 lotus growers in Truc Chinh and Giao Ha communes (Giao Thuy) with a total area of ​​about 4 hectares, using Bach Diep lotus variety with a characteristic aroma, giving a more flexible and dense starch than regular lotus varieties.

According to him, the process of making lotus root starch is not complicated but goes through many different stages so the maker needs to be patient and careful.

Lotus roots to make starch must meet certain criteria such as being too young or too old to produce the most starch; the quality of the roots must be consistent and especially, lotus roots after harvest must not be left for more than 2 days before being processed.

Fresh lotus roots after harvesting are washed, pureed, and put into a filter to remove the pulp and impurities. The filtered juice (powder water) is soaked in clean water to let the starch settle. When the starch is completely separated from the water and settles to the bottom, new water is poured in to soak and let all impurities, resin, etc. settle.

The process of settling and filtering is repeated until the water is clear, the white lotus root starch of the best quality will be separated into trays and dried in its natural starch state. On average, 12-13kg of fresh lotus root will yield about 1kg of starch.

To differentiate himself from other lotus root starch products on the market, he used Bach Diep lotus flowers picked before the sun rose (when the flowers have the best fragrance) to marinate, creating a natural, characteristic fragrance for the product.

In addition to processing lotus root starch, to maximize the efficiency of the invested machinery system, his production facility also researches and processes other added products such as lotus root tea. All lotus root starch and lotus root tea products are branded by him as “Sen 90”, the packaging clearly states the origin, place of production, uses, instructions for use, etc.

Lotus tea and lotus root starch have many health benefits, especially in treating respiratory and blood sugar diseases... and are popular with many consumers.

In addition to the traditional sales channel through acquaintances, he also uses the social network Facebook to promote and sell online. Currently, lotus root starch products are sold by him at prices ranging from 750 thousand VND to 1 million VND/kg depending on the type; lotus root tea is 400 thousand VND/kg.

On average, each year Mr. Anh sells 500kg of starch and 300kg of lotus root tea, with revenue of about 400 million VND, after deducting expenses, he makes a profit of 200 million VND.

At the end of October 2024, his product "Premium Lotus Root Starch" participated in the evaluation and classification of OCOP products. In addition, Mr. Vu Van Anh's project "Application of microbiological technology to improve the quality of products processed from the Red Lotus" was evaluated as having a breakthrough and unique idea and entered the semi-finals of the Thanh Nam Innovation and Startup Talent Search Competition in 2024.

In addition to creating new and creative products, promoting connections and consumption of local agricultural products, Mr. Anh also actively participates in patriotic emulation movements, contributing to accelerating the process of building advanced new rural areas and local models.

With a thirst for wealth, innovative thinking and a passion for creativity, Mr. Vu Van Anh has successfully built his own economic model with products processed from lotus root, turning a common, rustic agricultural product into a specialty dish that consumers are looking for.

This is one of the typical examples representing the spirit of innovation, creativity, daring to think, daring to do of Nam Dinh youth in the new period, at the same time contributing to spreading and promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in the province.

Source: https://danviet.vn/nho-cu-sen-to-bu-duoi-bun-len-lam-bot-dac-san-an-tot-cho-tim-trai-lang-nam-dinh-giau-han-len-20250112193018862.htm