Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thao (60 years old) was born into a poor family in Nam Dinh. From a young age, he realized the importance of earning money to help his family. At the age of 20, he started following his relatives to trade all kinds of things.
With his sharp nature, his business was very successful, helping him become one of the richest people in the region.
In 1987, he switched to exporting seafood, especially crabs. This job brought him a stable income, but then the Chinese market suddenly stopped importing crabs, causing him to lose more than 35 million VND and fall into debt. This financial shock made him decide to quit the business.
In 1998, Mr. Thao moved to the South to work as a hired hand, in order to find a way to pay off his debt. After paying off his debt, he had some savings and decided to switch to growing coffee in Lam Dong.
However, after a period of farming, he realized that agriculture was not the stable choice as desired.
Knowing that Khanh Son has a suitable climate for growing fruit trees, he decided to save up money to buy land here. In 2002, he used the 260 million VND he had saved to buy 5 hectares of land in Son Trung commune (Khanh Son district), and started growing durian. At that time, he was the first person in the area to hire an excavator to create hills for planting trees.
At first, he encountered many difficulties, the experimental durian trees died in large numbers due to lack of knowledge and gummosis. In addition, many trees flowered irregularly, affecting the yield.
However, he did not give up. After many failures, he began to understand the "personality" of each tree and knew how to care for it most effectively.
He attended durian training courses, learned from successful growers and gained practical experience. One of the important lessons he learned was to proactively prevent diseases in durian trees, avoiding letting the trees get sick because once they get sick, it is very difficult to cure.
"During the first two years of growing durian, I lost billions of dong, but thanks to that, I mastered the technique," Mr. Thao shared. After five years of growing, he began harvesting durian and achieved high profits. Gradually, many people in the area also followed his durian growing model.
Thanks to his perseverance and the application of science and technology in production, Mr. Thao now has a 30-hectare durian garden, of which 14 hectares meet VietGAP standards. Each year, his garden yields about 200 tons of durian, with a revenue of more than 25 billion VND and a profit of 14 billion VND.
Mr. Thao has become one of the durian billionaires in Khanh Hoa, a successful example in agriculture. His durian garden not only brings high income to his family, but also creates jobs for many local people.
He is also willing to share his experiences with those who want to learn, contributing to improving the local agricultural sector.
Recently, Mr. Thao was honored by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers' Union as an Excellent Farmer 2024. "I didn't think I would achieve such a great title. I only do farming because I want to take care of my family," he humbly shared.
Mr. Trinh Van Quyen - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Son Trung Commune, highly appreciated Mr. Thao as a person with a sharp mind and perseverance in learning. From a person who knew nothing about growing durian, he became the most successful person in the commune. In addition, he also helped local people and contributed to agricultural development.
