A farmer in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta has spent more than 30 years turning repeated setbacks into a fish business that now sells across the country and exports to the US and South Korea.
From borrowing relatives’ ponds to losing almost everything to disease, Nguyen Kim Thuy has endured more than three decades of ups and downs to build a business around clown knifefish, increasing the value of a familiar Mekong Delta species and generating annual revenue of around VND28 billion ($1.06 million).
From losing everything to building a valuable fish brand
Thuy, 52, who lives in Thanh Hoa Commune in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, was born into a large farming family.
In 1993, a year after getting married, she began her business journey by raising hybrid catfish.
With no capital of their own, Thuy and her husband borrowed her husband’s grandfather’s land-use rights certificate to use as collateral for a VND2.5 million bank loan.
Three months later, they sold their first batch of fish for VND6 million. After repaying the debt, Thuy reinvested what remained in another crop.
As catfish farming proved successful, she decided to expand.
Nguyen Kim Thuy has spent more than 30 years farming and processing fish.
Thuy put in all her savings, borrowed ponds from relatives and took out more than VND500 million in bank loans. The couple also converted part of her parents’ rice fields into fish ponds with their own hands.
“My husband used a spade to dig while I stood below, passing and throwing the soil up. Other relatives came to help as well,” Thuy recalled. “People using machinery could dig a pond in a day or two. Because we did it by hand, it took us an entire month.”
But as the operation grew, disaster struck.
Disease swept through the ponds, killing fish on a large scale and wiping out almost all of the couple’s capital. When their loans came due, the bank declined to extend further credit, leaving the family scrambling to repay its debts.
Looking back on that difficult period, what Thuy remembers most is not the money she lost, but the support she received from her family.
When relatives learned of her situation, some offered their own land-use rights certificates for her to use as collateral for bank loans. Others gave her gold to help her get through the crisis.
“The actions and affection of my relatives moved me deeply and became the motivation for me to keep trying,” Thuy said.
Instead of giving up, she looked for other ways to make a living while supporting her family and paying for her children’s education.
She built a small coffee shop on family land. When coffee sales brought in little income, she turned it into a restaurant and began teaching herself to cook dishes according to customers’ tastes and requests.
Thuy feeds clown knifefish raised in above-ground tanks, a model she began testing in early 2026.
Each above-ground tank can hold around 5.5 tons of fish.
Clown knifefish grow well in above-ground tanks, which allow farmers to better control water quality and reduce disease risks.
When customers ordered dishes she did not know how to prepare, including snakehead fish, eel and frog, she would ask others how to cook them and then experiment herself.
She remembered individual customers’ preferences and adjusted her dishes accordingly.
The restaurant became increasingly popular, at times serving 30-40 tables a day. But shopping for ingredients and cooking from morning until night was exhausting, prompting Thuy to start looking for a more sustainable livelihood.
In 2014, Thuy and her husband decided to change direction. Her husband began trading fish at Binh Dien Market in Ho Chi Minh City.
Their first attempt at trading climbing perch resulted in a loss of around VND200 million.
Again, Thuy did not give up. She learned from the experience and switched to buying and selling clown knifefish.
By 2015, clown knifefish prices had fallen sharply, leaving farmers struggling with an unstable market. Thuy realized that simply selling unprocessed fish left producers highly vulnerable to the familiar cycle of bumper harvests followed by falling prices.
That experience gave her the idea of processing the fish into higher-value products.
Some clown knifefish dishes she had previously served at her restaurant were already popular with customers. Diners began buying them to take home or serve at parties, then recommending them to others.
Orders gradually increased.
More than selling fish: Controlling the value chain
Thuy checks the production process and guides workers as they scrape clown knifefish meat from the bones.
Despite her husband repeatedly questioning the investment while production remained small, Thuy was determined to spend money on packaging, product testing and regulatory procedures to establish her own brand.
In 2015, she registered the Ky Nhu clown knifefish brand.
“I thought that if a product was going to grow, it needed a brand and had to be developed professionally,” Thuy said.
Her first product was bone-in clown knifefish seasoned with salt and lemongrass.
As sales grew, she noticed that older customers and children had difficulty eating the fish because of its many bones. That observation prompted her to begin researching ways to produce boneless clown knifefish.
Thuy experimented with different preparation methods, asked people to taste the products and continued adjusting her recipes. Only products that received a positive market response were taken forward for further investment and production.
What began as a dish served in her restaurant gradually became a commercial product.
In 2019, Thuy established a cooperative.
Starting with 11 members, the cooperative has grown to 56, with a combined farming area of around 17 hectares. Thuy’s family accounts for five hectares.
The cooperative supplies juvenile fish, provides technical support and guarantees purchases from farmers at stable prices, typically VND2,000-10,000 ($0.08-$0.38) per kilogram above prevailing market prices, according to Thuy.
The arrangement gives farmers a more stable market while allowing the cooperative to secure a reliable supply of raw materials for processing.
Having experienced repeated difficulties caused by fluctuating fish prices, Thuy has placed particular emphasis on developing a closed production chain, from selecting broodstock and producing juvenile fish to commercial farming and processing.
Water quality, feed and veterinary drug use are monitored throughout the farming process, along with compliance with regulations on antibiotics.
The cooperative now has 11 products certified under Vietnam’s One Commune One Product, or OCOP, program. Ten have received four-star ratings, while its seasoned boneless clown knifefish has received the national five-star designation.
Ky Nhu Cooperative products are now sold in around 20 provinces and cities across Vietnam, distributed through supermarket chains and exported to the United States and South Korea.
According to Thuy, the operation generates around VND28 billion ($1.06 million) in annual revenue, with profits totaling several billion dong.
Raising fish on land in above-ground tanks
Clown knifefish meat is removed for processing into value-added products.
In early 2026, Thuy invested in an experimental system for raising clown knifefish in above-ground tanks equipped with water filtration and treatment systems.
Each tank can hold around 5.5 tons of fish.
According to Thuy, the model provides greater control over water quality and reduces the risk of disease. It is particularly suitable for households with limited land.
If the experiment succeeds, she hopes the model can be expanded to provide additional livelihood opportunities for local residents.
Thuy has also invested in modernizing the cooperative’s processing facility alongside the development of its farming areas.
Machines now assist with a range of processes, including removing scales and bones, processing fish paste, mixing seasonings, steaming, frying and vacuum packing.
The cooperative applies ISO 22000:2018, HACCP and VietGAP standards and has invested in cold-storage facilities and wastewater treatment while gradually automating production.
Thuy, however, does not want the operation to become fully automated.
Some processes, including deboning, cutting and marinating the fish, continue to combine manual work with machinery to preserve jobs for local women.
Looking back on more than 30 years of building her livelihood, Thuy does not regard her failures as experiences she would rather forget.
Instead, every time she lost everything, she said, she gained another lesson that helped her move forward.
Thuy has been recognized as one of Vietnam’s outstanding farmers in production and business and received a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister in 2023.
Vietnamnet.vn
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