Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer 2024 from Tien Giang is a billionaire growing cordyceps mushrooms

In Phu Quy hamlet (Vinh Huu commune, Go Cong Tay district, Tien Giang province), everyone knows the name of Mrs. Luon. She is known as a successful grower of cordyceps mushrooms, creating jobs for many local households.

Growing Cordyceps mushrooms earns billions of dollars each year

Ms. Luon’s full name is Tran Thi Luon, born in 1974. She graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry and worked as an accountant in the city. When she went to university, Ms. Luon wanted to find a satisfactory job with a stable income after graduation. She never thought of returning to her hometown to work as a farmer.

Ms. Tran Thi Luon is a female farmer from Tien Giang province who was honored as Outstanding Vietnamese Farmer 2024. Photo: Quang Sung

"I am a farmer's daughter, I set a goal to go to school to work, but if I go back to farming, it would be very sad," Ms. Luon said about her thoughts at that time.

However, she could not escape her fate of being attached to the fields and gardens. In 2016, Ms. Luon started researching the cultivation of Cordyceps. Although she studied at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry, her major was aquaculture, not related to farming. Therefore, her relationship with the Cordyceps mushroom field was also quite coincidental.

“Through documents, I learned about the health benefits of Cordyceps. In 2016, I read somewhere that “Vietnam has successfully grown Cordyceps”. I don’t know why, but since I learned this information, it has motivated me to learn about how to grow this mushroom,” Ms. Luon shared.

To successfully grow this expensive mushroom, Ms. Luon spent a lot of time and effort researching and attending classes on mushrooms, microbiology, extraction, etc. After two years of hard work, she successfully researched and grew cordyceps in the laboratory. She established Thien An Cordyceps Company Limited with the aim of branding the product and selling it more conveniently to the market.

Ms. Luon is visiting the Cordyceps mushroom growers, where the temperature is always maintained at around 27 degrees Celsius. Photo: Quang Sung

Currently, Ms. Luon's company has 34 mushroom growing rooms, which can harvest dozens of kilograms of fresh mushrooms every day. Here, she has invested in additional processing areas, processing cordyceps into many products such as freeze-dried cordyceps, cordyceps bird's nest water, cordyceps porridge, cordyceps mushroom sauce, etc.

Ms. Luon researched and launched about 14 products related to Cordyceps mushrooms, of which 11 products were recognized as 4-star OCOP products.

Before her success with the cordyceps mushroom model, Ms. Luon also produced herbal incense for export. Currently, she is operating a large-scale incense factory, with hundreds of workers at peak times.

Production workers at Thien An Cordyceps Company Limited

With the effort to research and find new things with high economic efficiency for production, each year, Ms. Luon earns more than 3 billion VND. Ms. Luon's enterprise is creating jobs for about 300 regular and seasonal workers.

Concerned about developing the homeland

Talking to Ms. Luon, we saw her concern about creating jobs for local workers. When she opened the incense factory, there were hundreds of workers working there, but she still felt it was not enough; many local workers still did not have stable jobs.

Thien An Cordyceps Company Limited has about 50 full-time employees. Photo: Quang Sung

That is also the reason why she is determined to research and grow Cordyceps mushrooms to open a company - opening a new field to develop the local economy. Currently, the mushroom growing job at Thien An Company has about 50 workers participating in regular work, with an average income of 8 million VND/month.

“Cordyceps production at my company still has some manual steps, I don’t want to mechanize because I want to create jobs for farmers. Some steps like making embryos, packaging… can be done by machine, but with the workers we have, we have to create jobs for them,” Ms. Luon confided.

The process of putting mushroom spawn into the box and sealing it is done manually. Photo: Quang Sung

Currently, Ms. Luon is continuing to expand production to other areas. She has a herbal garden, specializing in preserving and researching precious herbs. From this garden, Ms. Luon established the Thien An Green Medicinal Garden agricultural eco-tourism area with a focus on health and healing.

Not only are they good at production, Ms. Luon and her company always accompany the local government in implementing social security programs. Especially contributing to the construction of bridges and roads to serve the new rural development program in the locality.

Mr. Tran Dang Khoa - Vice Chairman of Vinh Huu Commune People's Committee assessed that in the process of building new rural areas in the locality, the contribution of Ms. Luon and Thien An Company is very clear.

“Ms. Luon is a typical individual, her company has created jobs for regular and seasonal workers in the locality. Her company is a pioneer in building OCOP products, in 2025 it is expected to register the first OCOP product of the province,” said Mr. Khoa.

Sharing the difficulties encountered in the process of producing and selling cordyceps products, Ms. Luon said: “Currently, consumers do not know clearly about the effects of cordyceps. Consumers only know that this product is good for health, but do not know why it is good, what substances it contains, so there are many shortcomings.”

According to Ms. Luon, the competition of cordyceps mushroom products on the market is very large. There are many units producing cordyceps mushrooms, so they must always upgrade the design and quality of the products.

“Communication work about my cordyceps mushroom products is still limited and costly. I want my products to be widely communicated to reach more consumers, helping them understand the health benefits of cordyceps mushrooms,” Ms. Luon expressed.

Source: https://danviet.vn/nong-dan-viet-nam-xuat-sac-2024-den-tu-tien-giang-la-ty-phu-trong-nam-dong-trung-ha-thao-20240913133150796.htm