From an uneducated boy to the owner of the "Shin Coffee" brand.

In 1993, 11-year-old Nguyen Huu Long, who had only completed the second grade, had to drop out of school to follow his family from the impoverished rural area of Ky Anh (Ha Tinh province) to the Ia Cham Coffee Plantation (then part of Chu Pah district, Gia Lai province ) to earn a living. He toiled all day digging holes, pruning branches, and harvesting... but the hard work couldn't extinguish his dream. Although he couldn't yet imagine how, he still dreamed of one day becoming rich from coffee cultivation…

In 1999, Long moved to Ho Chi Minh City, working part-time at a beverage shop and then as a waiter at a restaurant. He thought he would be stuck in these jobs for the rest of his youth, but then a stroke of luck came unexpectedly: a Japanese man who frequented the shop noticed that Long resembled his son and struck up a conversation. Knowing Long's circumstances, the man adopted him, gave him money for his education, and taught him Japanese. After completing high school and having a decent level of Japanese, Long was hired as an interpreter.

With a small amount of capital, Long's long-held dream of starting a coffee business resurfaced. He and a friend bought roasted and ground coffee beans and started selling them wholesale. He recalled, "Failure was inevitable because we had no understanding of branding or the necessary business skills. However, this shock helped me realize that to succeed in business, you can't just rely on instinct; you need knowledge. So, I enrolled in the Business Administration Faculty at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City. After graduating, thinking I was 'ready,' I teamed up with a friend to open a bonsai coffee shop. Unexpectedly, we failed again. The reason was simply the vast difference in our perspectives. Not only did I lose all my capital, but I also lost the small house I had worked so hard to acquire. With no other options, I decided to seek work abroad in Japan, determined to earn money to rebuild everything from scratch."

Nguyen Huu Long - the owner of the "Shin Coffee" brand.

Having started working for Toyota with a decent salary, Nguyen Huu Long thought he would be secure in his new job. However, as if by fate, the idea of starting a coffee business resurfaced in his mind. With the support and encouragement of his adoptive father, Long dedicated time to attending organic farming training courses and thoroughly researching different coffee varieties available in Japan. Japan is a large coffee market; most of the world's famous coffee brands are present there. Yet, Vietnam, a renowned coffee exporter, was largely absent from the market. His pride fueled his relentless pursuit of knowledge. "The work was so captivating that at times I tried to skip work at the company to attend training courses, then worked hard to make up for it later," he recalled. His tireless learning spirit caught the attention of a Japanese company specializing in coffee import and export, which offered him a management position. The experiences he gained here further fueled Long's determination to build his own coffee brand, driven by a desire to take Vietnamese coffee to the global stage.

In 2015, with great ambitions, Long returned to Vietnam and embarked on his third entrepreneurial venture. Building a raw material area – a prerequisite for quality control and brand building – was his top priority. Trang commune was one of seven raw material areas he selected, initially covering 50 hectares of coffee plantations. After establishing the cooperative, the area increased to 100 hectares. Long named his brand "Shin," after his adoptive father, as a token of gratitude.

I eagerly followed Long to visit VCSC's coffee plantation. It was a completely new concept compared to anything I had seen before. While traditional coffee plantations always have weeds cleared and coffee plants pruned to keep their height around 1.7 meters, VCSC's coffee has no height limit. Overall, it's a symbiotic green carpet of coffee, shade trees, and weeds.

Nguyen Huu Long stated that his coffee plantation uses absolutely no chemical fertilizers, only homemade organic fertilizers, including cow manure, coffee husks, and microbial fertilizers. The pesticides used are also homemade biological pesticides extracted from fish oil. The entire production process is closed-loop, from seed to the final product.

This is a farming principle that all cooperative members must strictly adhere to. "It's quite difficult to get them to comply with the new farming principles," Long recounted. "It's not so difficult that the members can't follow it. The main issue is that their traditional farming habits make them uneasy about adopting something new."

For example, they always wondered: why not clear the weeds, what if they compete with the coffee plants for nutrients?; why harvest 100% ripe cherries, when previously 70-80% was considered high? I had to spend a considerable amount of time explaining, but the important thing was the unexpected results that convinced them: coffee yield reached 6 tons of beans/ha (normally only 3-4 tons); the cooperative purchased the product at a price 15-20% higher than the market price.”

These core benefits gradually led the cooperative members to understand that changing their farming habits meant changing their quality of life, and they voluntarily implemented farming discipline – including the five members from the Ba Na ethnic group. As a result, VCSC's coffee plantation has achieved European (ORGANIC.EU) and American (ORGANIC.USDA) organic certifications granted by the Control Union organization.

Now I understand why at Shin Coffee stores in Ho Chi Minh City, each cup of coffee sells for between 80,000 and 150,000 VND. And currently, with 20 product lines processed in Shin's own factory, the Shin Coffee brand is present in Japan, the US, and most European countries. Shin's reputation and prospects have led PAN – a large economic group – to decide to invest. PAN chose Shin coffee as a gift for heads of state at important conferences and events during Vietnam's ASEAN Chairmanship in 2020.

“Given its reputation and market position, why doesn’t Shin expand its production scale or establish broader partnerships with coffee growers in the Central Highlands?” In response to my question, Nguyen Huu Long shared: with a demand of approximately 10,000 tons of organic coffee (currently only 5,000 tons) for processing, Shin urgently needs to expand production and partnerships. However, VCSC’s motto is “quality over quantity.” Changing a production habit takes time. Therefore, for now, VCSC only hopes to be a “small flame” to spread an environmentally friendly production method; aiming to build a community of carbon-reducing farmers and potentially sell its credits to the global market.

As the founder of VCSC, Nguyen Huu Long holds the position of advisor rather than director or chairman of the board. Explaining this, Long said: "Simply put, I want to give opportunities to the younger generation. Besides, when Shin Coffee joined PAN, it faced many opportunities but also many challenges. This requires the energy of youth. After all, I'm already 42 years old..."

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202506/tu-cau-be-that-hoctro-thanh-ong-chuthuong-hieu-shin-coffee-52e03b8/