The atmosphere of the event City leaders met the startup community bustling last week. People are looking for products of young people, startup businesses. Agricultural products such as mushroom seeds, natural oils, dried grapefruit peel, honey, tea from flowers ... are of great interest. Among them, a group of quite special products of agro-forestry business: pomelo peel, lemon cord drying.
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Historically, Vietnamese people have a habit of eating grapefruit and removing the shell. Lemon is the same, people only take water and remove the shell. From a project by the American professor of fruit by-products, Dr. Le Trung Thien, a lecturer at the University of Agriculture and Forestry, sees a lot of effects on human health. "Grapefruit skin, lemon peel skin is very good for health. But it's hard to eat. We choose healthy shells and make them easy to eat for human beings, "Thien shared with us at the event. The value of pomelo peel increased a thousand times. The starting point was students of Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University, Mr. Thien graduated and worked at Nong Lam University. Two years later, he applied for a scholarship in Belgium. After seven years studying in America, he returned to Vietnam and continued teaching at Nong Lam University. Learning the food processing industry, Thien saw the removal of precious things with human health such as pomelo peel, lemon strings are too wasteful. Two years ago, with initial capital of about 100 million dong, he and his partner were students of the school have researched and marketed products of pomelos and lemon wire drying. Nong Lam Food has more than 20 employees and employs a factory producing about 200 kg / day. The staff of the company is the teachers and students of the school. The products of Nong Lam school are only available through online channels and some stores. Each pack of 200 grams of dried grapefruit is priced at 55,000 VND. 145 grams of lemon prunes cost 50,000 VND. After processing, the value of grapefruit peel, lemon peel has increased several times.
Thien admits that there are still many difficulties, such as the expansion of sales channels, investment in new facilities, the introduction of new products in line with the market trend ... But look at neighboring countries such as Thailand , The Philippines ... they all have many products dried fruit shell and is very popular with consumers. Sharing about difficulties in accessing the market, especially at the beginning, Thien recalls: "In this area (product marketing), the technicians are often weak, lacking practical experience to the information. about the market. Our advantage is that the starting point is zero. We try, if we can. If not, then try the product well. If the product is preferred by consumers then we do. The knowledge of marketing, marketing is now new thinking and need people with expertise. At first do follow the passion only ". However, the products of the group of teachers in Nong Lam have had some successes. According to his share, Agriculture Lam Food has a revenue of about 1 billion per month, profit margin about 20%. His associates also have good income. Currently, the dried pomelo is still the main revenue earner for the company.
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