In the midst of the crisis, he graduated a mountain and made a “paradox” to collect billions

Struggling because of “black gold”

Regarding the journey of building a business from pepper trees in a time of crisis, Mr. Nguyen Tan Cong of Nam Yang commune (Dak Doa, Gia Lai) shared that pepper was present in Le Chi land (former name of Nam Yang) since 1960.

Back then, my grandpa said, not knowing because of the new fertile basalt soil or climate that people only fertilized with ash and pepper plants still up green. Red pepper has a special pungent flavor alternating with a little sweet aroma, the sweetness of the fruit, hand-picked each ripe ripe red seed. Therefore, the people of Le Chi then regarded pepper as a valuable medicine.

Every family would pick ripe red pepper and soak with rice wine to save when the “wind becomes the sky” as a cure for stomachache, cough, massage when tired or dried to keep the natural red color. gifts for relatives in the distance.

Graduated from Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics, underwent a lot of different jobs with both successes and failures, when he returned to Nam Yang to plant pepper, Cong met with the objections of many people. But from his grandmother's story about pepper plants, there was something that inspired him to return to his homeland.

“We are the children of Le Chi who work far away from home. Every time we visit our home, we see people sticking to the pepper trees and green gardens. After nearly 30 years, why do I not contribute to making Le Chi specialties further? Therefore, in 2013, I decided to return to grow pepper on my family's bare land, ”Mr. Cong recalls.

But unlike the usual way of massively expanding the area when pepper is in the golden period, Mr. Cong started his farmer's career with his own trademark registration and protection in 2014.

“Peace of mind because I had my own brand, I fell into a crisis immediately after starting a business.” He recalled, in 2016, when pepper was still in the throne position, the price of pepper reached over 200,000 VND / kg, people began to rush to plant. They abandoned natural farming methods, switched to cultivation with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Pests are rampant, many pepper gardens have been wiped out, many farmers have gone bankrupt, many export shipments have been returned. Then, the storm of price came and the oversupply caused the price of pepper to plummet. Like many other farmers, at that time he could not help but be in trouble.

Redirecting to organic, collecting billions

In extreme mechanics, he thought, if he did not change direction, do not innovate production and improve product quality, the reputation of Le Chi will build will be gone. So the idea of ​​establishing an organic pepper cooperative was formed.

“In 2017, in the crisis of oversupply and global pepper prices, we gathered the people of Le Chi who loved clean agriculture to form cooperatives to find new directions and learn farming models. Organic cooperation helps guide people ”- Mr. Cong shared.

“In 2019, while the price of pepper fell below the price, only around VND 40,000-45,000 / kg, the organic pepper of the cooperative still sold VND 100,000 / kg, helping members to have a stable income,” he breeze.

By turning to growing organic pepper, Mr. Cong escaped the crisis, regularly collecting billions

Remarkably, even when the pepper market is quiet due to the oversupply, the cooperative does not have pepper inventory because the demand for organic pepper is very high. The price of organic pepper is one and a half times higher than normal pepper, but it is sold out until it is sold out. Not only that, the cooperative also has many products to meet the diverse needs of the market.

In 2018, the cooperative rebuilt its organic pepper brand with the most quality deep-processed products in the pepper industry: Red pepper, black pepper, black pepper and green pepper. Thanks to growing organic pepper, the members of the cooperative have a better life.

“In the 2018-2019 crop alone, my family has 5 hectares of pepper, the turnover reaches over 1 billion VND.” He revealed and said, to ensure output for the product, his cooperative has associated with businesses in production and consumption. Accordingly, organic pepper is not only consumed in the domestic market but also exported.

However, in the process of doing, members of the cooperative are not ambitious to sell in large quantities but only in moderate quantities but good quality, sell at high prices and orient their branding in the market. EU, US, Japan, …

According to Mr. Cong, making organic pepper is not difficult but requires a high discipline of the grower, having to destroy the organic farming process. The most important thing is when harvesting, carefully picking ripe red seeds, then peeling, rinsing only the inner core and drying.

“International experts in the pepper industry consider that pepper made from red pepper is the highest quality product, especially in the world pepper industry. However, the output of this pepper is still quite modest. Mr. Cong affirmed that he and members of cooperatives chose to be an organic pepper brand in order to realize his dream of restoring the traditional products in his homeland, and wishing more and more Vietnamese pepper to be exported to other countries. than.

According to VietnamNet