Formerly a State employee, successful in the private sector: Part 5 - Owner of 3 businesses

Towards consumer health

Holding a light brown bottle of water in his hand, Mr. Nguyen Van Anh revealed his upcoming plans to me. He said he would switch to circular agriculture with biological products in the form of organic microbial fertilizers and hydrolyzed solutions for growing crops and raising livestock. The input materials are from organic waste, so it will solve the problem of environmental pollution. Along with that, he will raise fish and grow vegetables using new technology, which does not require much space but the productivity and quality will increase significantly.

After many years of wandering and struggling, Mr. Anh realized that circular agricultural production brings many benefits to the modelers as well as society, so he has been nurturing a rather large project. "This model will save costs, increase economic efficiency, reduce waste to the environment, thereby making production more sustainable," Mr. Anh added.

Having started his career nearly ten years ago, going through many hardships and difficulties, Mr. Anh is currently the Director of Agrico Production and Trade Joint Stock Company and together with his friends opened two other companies.

After graduating from the Artillery Officer School, Anh worked at the 572nd Artillery Brigade, Military Region 5 (Binh Dinh Province), then transferred to the Cam Giang District Military Command, then the Hai Duong Provincial Military Command.
Being a curious and creative person, even though he has a stable job, he always learns about new things. Since 2012, with the desire to create healthy products, he has delved into researching and processing agricultural products from his hometown. After a long time searching, researching, and testing different raw materials, he finally decided to focus on researching and processing garlic into black garlic.

Born in 1978 in An Phu ward (Kinh Mon), which is known as the garlic capital of the North, the annual garlic output here is very large. If farmers sell regular garlic, the value is not high. Through research, Mr. Anh found that in daily life there are many medicinal recipes from garlic and many dishes can use garlic as an ingredient.

With the desire to increase the value of garlic, he researched this product in depth by building a fermentation process to produce black garlic. "After studying many domestic and foreign documents, I made my own garlic fermentation machine and conducted a trial fermentation. The products produced were tested and guaranteed to have the quality and nutritional value as I expected," said Mr. Anh.

Having a satisfactory product but how to consume it is also a matter of concern for him because at that time black garlic was still a new product on the market, mainly in Korea and Japan. To gain the trust of customers, he started with the closest people.

He invited his friends and relatives to try it and everyone was delighted with the color and flavor of this product. This was a strong source of encouragement for him to bring the product to the market by advertising on social networks and attending fairs and exhibitions.

He built a product brand called Vietkiga, which was recognized by the People's Committee of Hai Duong province as a 4-star OCOP product in 2019... "Good news travels fast", the company's Vietkiga black garlic is not only known by domestic consumers but also exported to foreign markets. In 2019, the company's export output reached more than ten billion VND, the year with the highest export output of the enterprise. From the uses of black garlic, with the desire to diversify products and at the same time further expand the consumer market, Mr. Anh has used black garlic to process noodles, vermicelli, wine, syrup for children and is also favored by consumers.

While production and business were going well, the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Production and finding markets for consumption were difficult. At this time, black garlic products from many other companies and businesses appeared, making competition more fierce. Anh Anh temporarily stopped producing black garlic and looked for a new direction.

Having already produced machinery for production and understanding the difficulties of start-up businesses, after researching the market, in 2022, he pooled capital with 2 friends to open Macin Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Quang Nam province) specializing in consulting and installing agricultural processing machines.

Mr. Anh shared that many businesses invest in production but do not know what types of machines to buy, where to buy them and how to install them. Your task is to learn about the products that the business produces, then advise on the types of machines that need to be purchased and installed for the business to operate smoothly. You have to learn and understand the wishes of customers, give a quote so that it is economical, the equipment has many uses, and brings the most benefits to the business. If the research is not thorough and the advice is not in line with the business's wishes, it will not be successful.

Although he has shifted to trading technical products, Mr. Anh is still concerned about products that are good for consumers' health. Through research, he found that the demand for medicinal herbs in the form of extracts is quite large while the supply is not much, so he decided to invest in this field. In May 2024, he and 2 friends established Nam Duoc Hoa Binh Joint Stock Company (headquartered in Hoa Binh province) specializing in the production of papaya extracts, taro root, black xạ and some other medicinal herbs.

Although the company has just started operating, it has already found a place in the market as the number of customers is increasing. "Hoa Binh has a rich source of raw materials, so I decided to open a company here. Two friends there are in charge of finding raw materials and producing products, while I am in charge of the consumer market. The work is clearly divided so it is not too difficult," said Mr. Anh.

Come out of your shell

That is Mr. Anh's message to those who want to start a business but are still hesitant and worried. "You have to break out of your shell, explore the world and accept failure to get sweet results," Mr. Anh shared.

To achieve the success he has today, Mr. Anh also experienced many failures. When he wrote his discharge application in September 2017, apart from his determination and iron will trained in the army, Mr. Anh had almost nothing in hand. To start producing black garlic, apart from a little knowledge through self-study and reading instruction documents, Mr. Anh had never once "seen" the production process or grasped the flavor of black garlic.

Not only that, the business capital was not much, so he had to borrow from the bank and friends to buy raw materials to install the fermentation machine and test fermentation materials. Although the finished product was processed, each time it produced a different flavor, so he was also concerned about the machinery as well as the existing production process. Anh shared: "There were times when the path to producing black garlic seemed to have reached a dead end because of running out of production capital as well as struggling with the production process and the consumption market. Every time like that, I calmed down, looked for knots to untie, and found a way while going, even though it was not easy. When encountering failure, do not be discouraged, you need to persevere on the chosen path."

In addition to boldly entering into business, according to Mr. Anh, one must also constantly move to keep up with the development trends of the market. The market changes frequently, it is impossible to "stick" to a certain product or direction but must be flexible to seize opportunities. At the same time, prepare all resources to focus on production and business until the market is saturated, then switch to a new field.

Not only that, in every field when choosing production or business, you need to do it with all your heart. You have to concentrate on your work, put all your efforts into it to make quality products, from there you can affirm your position in the market.

To achieve the success he has today, in addition to his own efforts and perseverance, Mr. Anh shared that it is the companionship, encouragement and timely support of his family and friends. No matter the circumstances, this will be a great source of encouragement for him to firmly walk on the chosen path.

Never regretting and will always keep moving to keep up with the development trend of society is the determination and direction of Mr. Nguyen Van Anh on the business path he has chosen.