HANOI (Vietnam News / Asia News Network): “The pursuit of passion should accompany social responsibility” is the mantra of Dương Xuân Trường, a successful young entrepreneur from the central province of Thanh Hóas Thạch Thành District.
To add value to local herbs, Trường, 24, and his company Befine extract essential oils from local agricultural by-products, making a significant contribution to society and the environment.
“In parallel with business development, it is a social responsibility to pursue passion. The products that we produce and sell on the market should not only be safe for human health but also be environmentally friendly, ”said Trường.
On a visit to his hometown of Thạch Thành, he saw local farmers harvesting 500 acres of lemongrass, but they only took the roots.
Other parts of the plant, especially thousands of tons of leaves, were thrown away. It was this waste that inspired him to start his business.
“You wasted a huge resource that we could use to create products of greater value,” he said.
He also found that villagers burned lemongrass leaves in the field for many years, causing land degradation, lower yields and environmental damage.
With this in mind, he decided to use these by-products to add value by extracting fragrant oil from the leaves.
He began to study the distillation process, how to collect lemongrass leaves, when to do it, and what equipment was needed.
In 2017, Trường decided to reserve his university studies to return to his hometown to start a company to extract oil from by-products of lemongrass, eucalyptus and mint.
At first, family and friends simply told him, “It won’t work,” but he pushed through with his plan.
Knowing that their son had dropped out of college to work as a farmer, his parents were upset because they had worked in the fields all their lives and didn’t want the same for their son.
“I have a particular passion for clean agriculture and I always wanted to return to develop and enrich my homeland. I would also like to help change the attitude of farmers towards sustainable and friendly environmental development instead of relying on chemical fertilizers, ”said Trường.
In 2017, the young man decided to invest 600 million VNĐ (around 26,000 US dollars) in production machinery and set up a home workshop with four employees.
But he ran into many difficulties.
“From production and administration to marketing and sales, everything was new to a very young man like me with very little experience, and I knew I had poor communication skills,” he said.
Although starting a business in the countryside had advantages in terms of labor, investment costs, and abundant raw materials, the hardest part was refining its product.
Often times, he had to pour away dozens of liters of poor quality essential oil due to mistakes made during the extraction process.
He lost 5kg in the first six months from staying up late working on adjusting his essential oils.
But hardship never conquered him.
Trường kept researching until he got the first lot of a high quality product.
In his first success, Trường won 30 bottles of lemongrass leaf essential oil. His first products were quickly ordered by customers when he was selling them on social networks.
Knowing that it was impossible to compete on price, he thought of quality first and gradually built a reputation with partners of large pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies who could test the quality of his oils. In addition, he set up a fan page and e-commerce channels.
“During some research I found that many products of unknown origin are entering the market. I decided to live stream, film and photograph the local raw material in my area as well as the production process in my company to show customers, ”he said.
“This means that there are partners in the central and southern regions who are interested in my products because they see the reality of production and not just empty advertising.”
About a year after Befine was founded in 2017, the sale and extraction of essential oils from lemongrass leaves went smoothly and the products received positive feedback.
After initial success with lemongrass oil, Trường switched to other aromatic herbal products.
After three years of development, it now produces around 20 different types of essential oils and solid fragrances that are good for health and skin, such as cinnamon, coriander, ginger, lemongrass, rose, grapefruit blossom, tangerine and mint.
The company owns 14 hectares of land for the raw materials and has connections with other growers to purchase medicinal plants from another 500 hectares. On average, thousands of tons of raw materials are used every year and jobs are created for around 70 workers at the same time.
Although Trường has good products and competitive prices, it faces a lot of domestic competition.
With the aim of promoting sustainable agriculture and rejecting chemical fertilizers, his company is struggling to protect medicinal herbs from pests and diseases that affect crop yields and product quality.
However, he said he will continue on the path he has taken towards clean and sustainable agriculture.
“After many failures in business, I’ve learned that in order to be successful in business, I must develop products that meet four standards: quality, price, market and marketing,” he said.
The young entrepreneur has focused on the application of digital technologies and the organization of sales and marketing programs, taking advantage of a high-tech economy.
In addition to the classic sales channels, it promotes sales via social networks such as Facebook, Zalo and various e-commerce platforms and has also reduced its shipping and rental costs by 40 percent.
Dương Ngọc Trường is committed to running an essential oils business with sustainable development. Photo courtesy Befine
His company currently sells around 100,000 bottles of high quality essential oils and 10 tons of crude oil annually.
The young entrepreneur has also committed to guarantee the production of essential oils from organic medicinal plants and herbs from Vietnam and to offer consumers the purest natural products.
