Driving from the center of Duc Hoa district in Long An province, along the Vam Co Dong River towards the My Binh commune People’s Committee office and the Vietnam-Cambodia border, one can see cajuput trees growing wild or denuded because of unsuitable soil.

However, the landscape is different at the end of the road. It is the farm of Vo Quan Huy, with green banana and fruit trees. In a house used as the headquarters of Huy Long An Co, Huy was sitting and looking at the banana farm, listening to his workers report about the export consignments.

Why did you decide to organize agricultural production in land located on the edge of the province?

I responded to the call to reclaim the Dong Thap Muoi area of the provincial Party Committee. The other reason was that I didn’t have money to buy land and my only choice was cultivating deserted land. I went to desolate areas, and after a period, the areas became well off.

In 1978, I went to reclaim land in Tay Ninh, growing sugarcane. After that, I went to Binh Duong and also grew sugarcane. I struggled to survive with sugarcane for one decade. I could only pay off the debts incurred from growing sugarcane after six years.

To date, I have farmed 20 species of plants and animals, including sugarcane, rubber, watermelon, shrimp, cows, bananas, pomelos, durian and mangosteen.

Are you well known as the ‘Banana King’? 

We now have 200 hectares of banana growing area in Long An. If counting the growing area grown in cooperation with local farmers, the figure is 600 hectares. The farming provides output of 20,000 tons a year, and 95 percent is for export.

Did you face difficulties during reclamation and farming?

The difficulties were beyond any imagination. I came to the land for reclamation in 1994 and only 10 years later was the commune established in 2003. So, you can see how wild the land was.

My Binh commune of Duc Hue district, where we are sitting, is just seven kilometers far from the Vietnam-Cambodia border. The land area is 4,500 hectares, of which 240 hectares have been reclaimed by me.

The soil is near the large river.  As it was contaminated with alum, plants could not grow normally. The process of clearing alum and improving soil lasted many years. Sometimes I felt exhausted because of limited financial resources. 

It took me six years to improve the soil and after a lot of trials with different crops, I began focusing on growing bananas in 2014-2015. I read somewhere that the global market was worth $15-17 billion a year.

Huy Long An is an enterprise which has sufficient infrastructure in the field of banana farming in Vietnam. The farming is in accordance with a closed process, from seeding, planting, and harvesting to packaging bananas for export. 

The revenue from bananas with FOHLA (Fruits of Huy Long An) brand alone is $15 million a year. Our bananas are now present in Japan, South Korea, China and Malaysia.

How do you find clients and partners to export products?

It seems that I do not do the usual track when exporting products. I chose Japan as the first market to target, because it is a choosy market. While I was farming shrimp, I once met Japanese partners and I found that they were very careful. They always checked products and examined factories many times before making decisions if they would buy your products. Japanese companies set very high requirements on banana packaging.

In order to export bananas to Japan, Huy Long An has to satisfy about 300 criteria, of which the most difficult is the one on chemical residues. 

What would you say to young people who want to start a business in the agriculture sector?

Honestly, I cannot count how many failures I have experienced. If you fail, you need to learn the lesson and continue going your way.

I think there are four factors needed to succeed in agriculture – soil, capital, technology, and will.

Also, everyone needs to learn. I myself, at the age of 70, also have to continue to learn.

Tran Chung