Transforming the "golden season" in the homeland
On the last afternoon of the year, Ms. Cao Thi Hang and staff of Thang Thuy Cooperative packaged hundreds of boxes of chrysanthemum tea to sell during Tet. With her hands deftly packaging and labeling, Ms. Hang told about the opportunity to start a business in her homeland.
In 2008, after graduating from Hai Phong Community College with a degree in Accounting, Ms. Hang quickly found a stable job in Hai Phong City. But every time she returned to her hometown and drove through the vast fields, Ms. Hang was filled with the dream of starting a business in her hometown and helping people escape poverty.
In 2009, Ms. Hang was determined to realize her dream of starting a business in her homeland, starting with her family's rice and vegetable fields. In 2013, Ms. Hang returned to work at Thang Thuy Cooperative and was elected Director of the Cooperative in 2017. With her youth and enthusiasm, Ms. Hang led the Cooperative to develop in the direction of linking production to product consumption, boldly signing product consumption contracts with agricultural and food export companies, bringing many agricultural products of Thang Thuy farmers to the international market.
Most successfully, Ms. Hang has made medicinal chrysanthemum a staple crop in the locality, bringing income to the people 10 times higher than rice cultivation. "Medicinal chrysanthemum has been grown by some households in Thang Thuy since 2017. The plants grow well, but households have difficulty selling their products. There were times when traders forced the price down to below 5,000 VND/kg of fresh flowers" - Ms. Hang shared.
From this reality, Ms. Hang pondered over a solution to "rescue" chrysanthemums. Realizing that freeze-drying technology could solve the output for the product, Ms. Hang rode her motorbike nearly 50 km to Hai Phong City to have the flowers dried. After drying, chrysanthemums fetched a good price, helping people earn an average of 10 million VND/sao, dozens of times higher than growing rice.
Up to now, the whole Thang Thuy commune has nearly 100 households growing chrysanthemums, with a total area of over 25 hectares. Each sao of chrysanthemums brings farmers an income of about 1 million VND/crop, significantly improving their lives.
Bringing chrysanthemum to the Tiktok floor
Through Thang Thuy Cooperative, in August 2023, the freeze-dried chrysanthemum product was recognized by the Hai Phong City People's Committee as a 3-star OCOP product and then as a typical rural industrial product at the city level in 2023. Thang Thuy Cooperative is also waiting for the certification of a 4-star OCOP product for this product. Ms. Hang herself also received a "shower" of awards and certificates of merit from all levels, the most honorable of which is the title "Outstanding Face of Hai Phong City" awarded by the Chairman of the Hai Phong City People's Committee.
Thang Thuy Cooperative's chrysanthemum tea products have also covered many stores and supermarkets in Hai Phong and some neighboring provinces and cities. Not only promoting local products on traditional channels, Ms. Hang and Thang Thuy Cooperative invest in technology, bringing products to e-commerce platforms and online sales channels such as Facebook, Tiktok...
"Every day, in addition to the time spent in the fields checking, purchasing agricultural products, processing, and packaging, the cooperative members work hard to learn how to create content, film, take photos, edit videos, and livestream... Although tired, the women are all happy because the products receive love and support, and the Thang Thuy chrysanthemum brand is also known by more people" - Ms. Cao Thi Hang happily said.
In the near future, Ms. Hang will focus on building product brands on online sales channels. In addition to chrysanthemum products, Ms. Hang aims to build brands for some products such as lotus leaf tea and perilla tea "made in Thang Thuy", helping more people get rich in their homeland.
