Rural women determined to start a business

Ms. Pham Thi Duy My was awarded the Certificate of Outstanding Rural Industrial Product in 2025 by the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the product "Brown Rice Bar". Photo: NV

Take advantage of local produce

On October 3, for the first time, the product "Brown rice bars" of Duy Oanh Green Agriculture Cooperative (Duy Xuyen commune) was awarded the Certificate of National Outstanding Rural Industrial Product by the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the 6th time - 2025.

It is not only an honor for Ms. Pham Thi Duy My, Director of the Cooperative, but also a pride for the Da Nang startup community, to have a local rural product honored in a major national event.

Born and raised in the countryside of Duy Xuyen commune, often seeing local agricultural products having good harvests but low prices, Ms. My had the intention of doing something to improve this situation.

Her dream came true in 2015 when she gave birth to her first child. At that time, worrying about her child's nutrition, Mrs. My started making cereal powder from grains such as brown rice, green beans, black beans, lotus seeds, etc.

With the knowledge of studying pharmacy, combined with the passion for clean food, Mrs. My's cereal powder product was born. Initially, it was only used in the family or given as gifts to friends, but gradually the cereal powder product became known to many people. She embarked on the path of entrepreneurship from there.

Based on local raw materials such as brown rice, beans, sesame, especially Tra Ly lotus seeds..., Duy Oanh's products are constantly developing the market and are well received by many customers.

Up to now, many product lines have been launched such as: nutritional cereal powder, brown rice bars, brown rice tea, dried lotus seeds, lotus heart tea, pennywort - green bean powder... In which, the two main products of the Cooperative including "Duy Oanh cereal powder" and "Brown rice bars & seaweed" are recognized as 4-star OCOP products.

Products of Duy Oanh Green Agriculture Cooperative have been continuously honored such as: Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province (old) awarded a certificate of merit; entered the top 100 typical products of the Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (2024); received the Certificate of typical rural industrial products at the Central - Central Highlands region level...

Also coming from a rural family, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Van (Dai Loc commune) had to drop out of school early to help her family. Sharing about her entrepreneurial journey, Ms. Van said that she used to suffer from hair loss and cured it herself by using grapefruit peels, soapberry, etc.; in 2019, she started the idea of producing shampoo from grapefruit peels and grapefruit peels.

At the end of 2021, when the COVID-19 epidemic broke out, realizing the popular demand for using lemon to increase resistance, she decided to switch to processing lemon juice and lime juice.

In mid-2021, Ms. Van established a business household, producing lemon juice under the brand name "Hong Van". In 2022, the production facility was located on an area of about 500m² in Dai Hiep commune (old) and signed a contract to purchase raw materials (lemon, kumquat, grapefruit) with local people to ensure a stable source of clean raw materials.

The facility currently has dozens of quality products such as: lemon jam, kumquat jam, grapefruit jam, grapefruit tea, lemon juice...; of which the product "Hong Van Lemon Juice" was granted a 4-star OCOP certificate in 2022. Most of the products are popular, including exports to Laos.

Overcoming difficulties in starting a business

Ms. Pham Thi Duy My and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Van are just two of hundreds of women who have successfully started businesses in the city based on local agricultural products; contributing to increasing income, creating livelihoods for people, promoting local socio-economic development. However, starting a business has never been easy for women.

Ms. Le Thi Anh, owner of Le Anh Cake (Dien Ban Dong ward) said that women starting a business always play two roles: taking care of production and business; and arranging time to take care of children and family.

Surveys show that, compared to men, rural women starting a business often face many difficulties, not only in terms of capital, market, etc., but also due to social, family and cultural barriers. In some cases, when participating in trade promotion programs, women are very reluctant to go far if their husbands and children do not sympathize and agree.

pn(1).jpg — Ms. Do Thi Vien with products from noni fruit. Photo: VL

According to Ms. Do Thi Vien (Bestone agent, Ngu Hanh Son ward), women starting a business, regardless of the product and the level of success, deserve to be respected and encouraged. Because that not only affirms their own capacity, dares to overcome barriers and challenges, but also creates a spreading motivation, demonstrates the determination to start a creative business, establish a career and establish a career.

Ms. Vien started her business in 2022 with a product made from noni fruit, after using this fruit once. “I want to share and spread the best of the product to the community because noni fruit is abundant around us,” Ms. Vien said.

Up to now, Bestone agent has supplied the market with 6 types of products refined from noni fruit such as: pure noni juice, noni soaked in honey, noni roots, noni powder, dried noni...

“It is very difficult for rural women to start a business. Besides capital, digital transformation, marketing, brand building… the most important thing is market connection.

With products made from noni fruit, it is even more difficult because not many people know about its uses, the taste of noni fruit is not appealing to the taste buds the first time you taste it, and it takes a long time to feel the effects (from 1-2 weeks)... Therefore, I always have to be persistent, make great efforts, and overcome difficulties to convince customers to use it," said Ms. Vien.

Source: https://baodanang.vn/phu-nu-nong-thon-quyet-tam-khoi-nghiep-3306821.html