Dr. Dinh Cao Khue: My whole life is dedicated to Vietnamese agricultural products.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of Ninh Binh province visited the raw material area of Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company in Tam Diep city.

Originally a university lecturer, refusing to hold the position of General Director of the Vietnam Agricultural Products and Vegetables Corporation, passionate about scientific research with degrees, awards, research projects... but all his life, Mr. Dinh Cao Khue was only attached to the fields and was deeply attached to the land of Dong Giao-Tam Diep, a place once considered a "sacred forest and poisonous water".

Dr. Dinh Cao Khue, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company (Doveco).

Back to the story many years ago, after graduating from Ha Bac Agricultural University 2 (now Hue University of Economics ), Mr. Dinh Cao Khue was retained as a lecturer in the Accounting Department, Faculty of Economics. However, with the patriotism of a young man with ideals and ambitions, he decided to put aside his teaching work, put aside his writing to join the army at the call of the Fatherland. In 1985, after leaving the army, he decided to work at Dong Giao Farm as a production team leader and was "quickly" appointed to the position of Deputy Director, the youngest in the history of Dong Giao Farm at the age of 29. His fate with this land began from there.

It is called fate because when he returned to Dong Giao State Farm, he was struggling to find a new direction. At that time, the country had "opened up" to trade with foreign countries, a new thought appeared in his mind: to bring agricultural products to the world market. Thinking must go hand in hand with action, so more than 40 years ago, he traveled to many countries and regions around the world to learn how to do business and the key was to find out what foreign markets needed. From there, he realized that the world food and beverage market is very diverse and has a lot of potential, especially in Europe and South America.

Since 1997, Cayenne Pineapple quickly became the main crop of Dong Giao Farm.

Grasping the market demand, he and the Board of Directors directly reported to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) to convert crops from inefficient sugarcane to sweet Cayenne Pineapple, rich in vitamins, into high-quality products, ensuring food hygiene and safety, meeting export standards. Since 1997, Cayenne Pineapple has quickly become the main crop of Dong Giao Farm and is grown not only in Ninh Binh province but also in neighboring provinces. Dong Giao pineapple juice products have quickly reached the international market, standing shoulder to shoulder with agricultural products of European countries.

From passion and enthusiasm, on the foundation of the former Dong Giao Model State Farm, Dr. Dinh Cao Khue and his colleagues have built a strong DOVECO, owning three most modern fruit and vegetable processing centers, including: DOVECO Ninh Binh Factory with a capacity of 32,000 tons of products/year; DOVECO Gia Lai Factory with a capacity of 52,000 tons of products/year; DOVECO Son La Factory with a capacity of 52,000 tons of products/year. DOVECO owns the most advanced technologies today such as: IQF freezing technology from Japan; concentration and pureeing technology imported from Europe; foreign object detection technology; frozen product packaging technology; automatic pineapple cutting technology...

Many long-time staff and workers at Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company, when asked, all had the same comment: Mr. Khue is a very brave, intelligent and ambitious person, thanks to which DOVECO is increasingly expanding, contributing to affirming the position of Vietnamese agricultural products in the international market. It is worth noting that at DOVECO, the number of regular employees and those cooperating with the Company is over 23,000 people, of which regular employees are over 3,300 people, with an average income of over 11 million VND/person/month; thereby contributing to ensuring social security.

Sharing about DOVECO's achievements, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of DOVECO Dinh Cao Khue affirmed: DOVECO has achieved good results thanks to the unit's pioneering in technological innovation and financial management to create outstanding competitive advantages; the unit is always proactive, creative, daring to think, daring to do, applying superior solutions to meet the increasing needs of customers; at the same time, playing a good role as a "bridge" between the international agricultural market and distributors, manufacturers, farmers and consumers.

As a testament to DOVECO's dynamism, creativity, daring to think and act, Mr. Dinh Cao Khue recalled the time in 2019 and 2020 when the Company invested in building modern processing centers in key fruit and vegetable areas in the Central Highlands and the Northwest, forming DOVECO Son La and DOVECO Gia Lai. The appearance of DOVECO in Gia Lai was like a "push", a source of inspiration for the development of the agricultural processing industry in this land. Since then, dozens of agricultural processing factories have "followed" DOVECO in Gia Lai, contributing to promoting rural industrialization and improving the lives of local people.

But perhaps the most important thing that the DOVECO brand has created is an agricultural economy with the mission of driving the comprehensive economic sectors such as processing industry, services, tourism, real estate, labor... in the localities where Dong Giao is present. And it is Dong Giao today that has changed the production habits of farmers towards large-scale, commodity production, as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assessed during his visit and work with Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company in 2024: "DOVECO is a typical model of successful transformation from a state-owned farm to a joint stock company".

Nguyen Thom-Anh Tuan

Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/ts-dinh-cao-khue-ca-cuoc-doi-toi-danh-tron-cho-nong-san-059425.htm