Can Tho students painstakingly 'smooth' wax coconut into coconut milk

Lam Chi Truong and his colleagues take advantage of local resources to produce coconut milk products that do not contain food additives and are good for the health of users.

Coconut Milk startup product of a group of students from Can Tho University of Technology - Photo: LAN NGOC

Lam Chi Truong - a student majoring in business administration (Can Tho University of Technology), head of the Cocovimilk coconut milk project, said that a small bottle of coconut milk provides energy for users for only 15,000 VND/bottle (volume 200ml).

Inspired by local specialty wax coconut

Lam Chi Truong is from Tra Vinh province, where the local specialty is long famous, which is wax coconut. "My colleagues and I came up with the idea and started researching to make a new milk line from wax coconut. The product is both good for health and can bring profit, but does not cost too much, because the group chose to take advantage of the wax coconut available in our hometown," said Chi Truong.

With that initial idea, from May 2024, the group received consulting support from lecturers of Can Tho University of Technology, Dr. Ngo Anh Tuan - Deputy Head of the Faculty of Economics - Industrial Management, and Dr. Tran Thi Minh Thu - Lecturer of the Faculty of Biotechnology - Biochemical Technology - Food Technology - to complete the project and implement it in practice.

Currently, Cocovimilk group has agreements with small and medium-sized wax coconut gardens in Tra Vinh raw material area. You can find them yourself to connect and create output for wax coconut with wax coconut growing households.

Cocovimilk group directly introduced the Coconut Wax Milk project product to the judges at the Can Tho Youth Startup Ideas and Projects Competition 2024 (November 8) - Photo: LAN NGOC

Accordingly, the purchased wax coconut material will be pre-processed. Then use production technology such as pasteurization, homogenization of milk to preserve the natural flavor of wax coconut. Do not use food additives or flavor enhancers to lose the nutritional value as well as the natural flavor of wax coconut. Wax coconut material has the characteristics of being thick, viscous, high in nutritional content, the more finely ground through many stages, the smoother the coconut is.

Chi Truong added that according to the group's survey, the value of wax coconut when finished and commercialized wax coconut milk increased by about 20% compared to the original value. The current selling price is 15,000 VND/bottle of wax coconut milk, meeting the daily consumption needs of customers.

Feasible project of Can Tho students

With the desire to take advantage of abundant local resources, the group has produced coconut milk products since they were students - Photo: LAN NGOC

The initial results showed that the project had its own advantages, so the group decided to bring the project to participate in startup competitions and achieved encouraging results such as second prize in the CTUT Startup II Innovation Ideas Competition in 2024, consolation prize in the Can Tho Youth Startup Ideas and Projects Search Competition 2024, consolation prize in the Mekong Delta Student Startup Ideas Competition 2024...

The biggest goal of the project is to develop more diverse products from wax coconut and be able to commercialize the products on many sales channels and reach more customers next year.

With the advantage of abundant and stable wax coconut raw material area in Cau Ke district, Tra Vinh province, suitable for mass production without fear of raw material scarcity.

"Cocovimilk coconut milk products have many outstanding advantages such as high nutritional content, anti-aging properties, lots of vitamins B1, B2, low sugar, naturally sweet taste and good for health", Chi Truong showed us the nutritional ingredients on the label of the coconut milk bottle.

The group plans to commercialize the product in 2025. Currently, the group is preparing to complete the final stages of product quality. In general, the product has been tested and announced with 12 indicators based on the National Technical Regulation for liquid milk products at the Can Tho Center for Technical Standards, Measurement and Quality.

To increase brand awareness and promote products made from specialties of Cau Ke, Tra Vinh, the group promoted the products on the Cocovimilk fanpage, website, and participated in innovative startup booths in Can Tho city.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nhom-sinh-vien-can-tho-ky-cong-lam-min-dua-sap-thanh-sua-dua-20241209091625548.htm