Exploiting resources
Previously, the economic thinking of Con Son gardeners (Binh Thuy ward, Can Tho city) mainly revolved around selling commercial fruits, or using them to serve customers when doing tourism, but unintentionally ignored the source of flower pollen from each flowering season.
Realizing that, around 2018, Mr. Ho Cong Minh (Cong Minh garden owner) boldly found his own direction. Through research, he learned about Italian bees with high honey productivity, not too complicated care techniques and especially very gentle, so he experimented.
Every flower season passes, looking at the pollen falling all over, I regret it very much. When I brought the first Italian bees to try raising them, I thought maybe it would bring something new to garden tourism, so I pursued it to the end," Mr. Minh confided.
Indeed, unlike the early days when it was still new, by the beginning of July 2026, when we had the opportunity to return to Con Son, we saw more and more that his model was invested methodically and put into effective operation. From a few beehives, he has now built a stable farming area with about 30 beehives. "Performance" activities such as dismantling beehives, rowing honey... have also become a famous brand, attracting domestic and foreign tourists to visit and learn.
Honeybread
Not only for customers to enjoy pure beeswax or drink soft drinks from honey when eating with folk cakes, in recent months, the family has also launched honey cakes. The mild sweetness of Italian honey right in Con Son has created a sophisticated culinary gift.
However, according to Mr. Minh, although it brings high economic value (each liter of honey costs several hundred thousand VND), the Italian honey farming combined with tourism is still a challenge. Because this is a seasonal product, heavily dependent on the flower blooming season from March-April to May-June of the lunar calendar.
Therefore, when the flower season in Con Son ends, Mr. Minh has to carry out "migration" to bring bees to other gardens to collect honey. This migration is not for tourism but to nurture and preserve the number of colonies to overcome the off-season.
In any season, bees produce honey, but if the quality is not good, I dare not serve customers, especially not selling honey or to make banh to. In general, our motto is to let customers enjoy the full deliciousness" - Mr. Minh added.
Mr. Tran Hoang Huy (28 years old, Vinh Long province) shared: "I have been to Con Son before and when I returned, I was really surprised. Still beeswax full of sweet honey just taken from the nest, but now there is also a honey cake with a very characteristic taste, eating once will remember forever".
Con Son has been operating tourism since 2015 and Con Son Agricultural Tourism Cooperative was established in 2022 with the orientation of building and developing a community-based agricultural tourism model.
In Can Tho, Con Son is always a destination surveyed by the City Party Committee, Can Tho City People's Committee, departments, branches, research groups... to find solutions for sustainable tourism development, especially to learn about some economic activities from gardens combined with agricultural tourism. Through this, grasp the current situation, find orientations and solutions to support people in a sustainable direction.
Con Son Agricultural Tourism Cooperative is always encouraged by many experts, agencies, and units... to stabilize models, research and create new products to create attraction for tourists; embellish landscapes and environments, and improve the quality of tourism activities in a professional, scientific, transparent and sustainable direction.
