Compass Travel Vietnam
Leaving the street to the forest, the barefoot director caught the ground difficult to “release gold”
27 years ago, Mr. Le Dinh Tu quit his job as an electrician, left the town, and ventured to the land of “3 nos” to set up a career. His passionate blood and industrious nature helped him become an excellent farmer billionaire.
Leaving the street to the forest
Mr. Le Dinh Tu (59 years old, residing in Bao Lam village, Binh Son commune, Trieu Son district, Thanh Hoa province) has dark skin, quick hands, and diligently picking tea in the hill behind the factory.
With a peasant appearance, if not introduced, no one would think that he was a famous Director in this semi-mountainous land.
He said, being born in Dong Cuong ward, Thanh Hoa city, he used to be an electrician with a good income. In 1996, introduced by friends, he left the town to go to the forest, to Binh Son commune to reclaim and settle down.
“It was a bold decision that turned my life in a new direction. At first I just decided to buy some forest land to plant trees and then go back to continue my electrician job. But when I came here, I saw moments. fertile hills, being a lover of agriculture, I decided to change direction and go reclamation”, Mr. Tu recalls the early days.
With the entire capital of 20 million VND, Mr. Tu bought 3ha of production forest land from the people for cultivation. At the beginning of his arduous career, the hills where he set foot were a desolate land with the characteristic of “3 nos” – no roads, no electricity, no phone waves.($1=24,000 VND)
To start work, he patiently paved the way, stopped the dam to get water, paid his pocket, coordinated with the people to pull electricity up the hill, then brought the seedlings to plant.
“At that time, Binh Son commune was in a particularly difficult situation. The hills and mountains were mainly trash trees and tea. The first thing I started to do was to open the road and pull electricity to the mountain. Only in 1998, the electricity line was completed. Then I reclaimed the hilly land, paving the way to the farm,” said Mr. Tu.
In the middle of a deserted forest, no matter how hard it is, every day Mr. Tu and his wife dig, build roads, and set up a system of ponds to serve irrigation. After a hard time, the previously bare hills gradually became green with about 3 hectares of sugar cane.
“One day, my wife and I built a dam and built the bank until late at night. The whole hill was immense, there were only trees and grass everywhere. At first, my wife was afraid to cry. But after staying forever, she became used to it. Husband and wife keep telling each other to work together”, Mr. Tu recalled the difficult early days of setting up a business.
Wake up the tea area, catch the difficult land to “release gold”
Mr. Tu said, in the past, in addition to growing sugarcane and acacia, people in Binh Son commune were also famous for their tea farming. However, due to small-scale production and trade, they have not been able to promote their strengths, and people who work hard all year round cannot escape difficulties.
There was even a time when a tea production cooperative was established here, but after only a few years, it fell into a disaster of loss and bankruptcy.
Looking at the green tea field planted but having no place to consume it, Mr. Tu felt sad and worried. Also at this time, he decided to call his friends and people in the commune to re-establish the cooperative, in the hope of “reviving” a famous tea area.
In 2016, Binh Son Agro-Forestry Service Cooperative was established, Mr. Tu became the Director. To develop the market, Mr. Tu and some members went to trade fairs and even brought tea to the market to promote the brand.
Simultaneously, he sought to change the design, product packaging, tea brand, and at the same time invested in technology and machinery for large-scale production.
“If you want to develop, you can’t work on a small and fragmented scale. So, after bringing Binh Son tea to the market, we built typical and typical tea growing areas, invested in machinery. to ensure supply for the market,” Mr. Tu shared.
In 2019, Binh Son clean tea was recognized as a 3-star OCOP product at the provincial level. Up to now, Binh Son Agro-Forestry Service Cooperative has nearly 80ha of tea (including 12ha of tea according to VIETGAP standards). The scale of operation of the cooperative was also expanded with 20 official members and 100 associate members.
“Binh Son tea products have been present in about 30 provinces and cities across the country. The average annual revenue of the cooperative is nearly 3 billion VND. In addition, tea growing is gradually flourishing, creating jobs. , improving income for member households, contributing to reducing the poverty rate. There are well-developed households that also bring in income from 100 to 150 million dong/year thanks to tea trees,” the director said.
Recently, Mr. Le Dinh Tu was also voted by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Farmers’ Association as one of the 100 outstanding Vietnamese farmers in 2023.
Looking back at the nearly 30 years of leaving the streets to go to the forest, the director of the cooperative is emotional and proud, because this is a huge achievement for him personally and for the members of the cooperative.
“When I left the city to come here to start a business, my hair was still green, now my hair is white. Almost half of my life I have stuck with this land, now looking at the results I have achieved is also very proud. Hope, one day Not far away, Binh Son tea will be one of the top delicious products in Vietnam.
I have the blood of farming, living with passion is also my motto. If you have passion, then you will strive to achieve your goals. Making tea is the same, farmers must be like an artisan, must be enthusiastic to produce satisfactory tea products,” Mr. Tu confided.
Regarding future plans, Mr. Tu said that he is cherishing and looking forward to the functional sectors to coordinate and develop a plan to do a community eco-tourism model project in the local tea area.
Mr. Le Cong Son, agricultural officer of Binh Son Commune People’s Committee, Trieu Son district, said that the whole commune has 300ha of tea. Mr. Le Dinh Tu is the best farmer in the locality, has made a great contribution to revive tea products.
“With the current development of tea trees, in the coming time, we will coordinate and encourage people to expand the tea growing area from 300 hectares to 400 hectares, and at the same time combine eco-tourism and experience tea areas. to increase income for people,” Mr. Son said.
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)
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Leaving the street to the forest, the barefoot director caught the ground difficult to “release gold”
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