VietNamNet Bridge - Dr Le Van Tri, who has dozens of patents, is a businessman who leads a conglomerate with annual revenue of hundreds of billions of dong. He is loyal to one principle: doing business on the basis of his research work.

Tri, 65, in a white shirt with salt-and-pepper hair, recently spoke to a reporter at his office in Hanoi, fragrant with citronella oil.

Looking younger than his age, he told the reporter that after the meeting he was going to meet a businessman from Binh Thuan province, who wanted to discuss purchasing a citronella distillation and a micro organic fertilizer production line that he and his co-workers had developed.

In 1992, after finishing postdoc study in Russia, Tri returned to Vietnam and received an order from Russia for potato seeds. 

In normal conditions, potatoes will germinate three to four months after harvesting. What Tri needed was to find the suitable gibberellin concentration. After spraying gibberellin on the potatoes, the bulbs would germinate after arrival in Russia.

Dr Le Van Tri, who has dozens of patents, is a businessman who leads a conglomerate with annual revenue of hundreds of billions of dong. He is loyal to one principle: doing business on the basis of his research work.

At that time, his company had just been set up and had difficulties. Tri had to persuade his wife to sell all all assets they had so that he could pay workers.

“I successfully defended a PhD dissertation on gibberellin, the plant growth stimulator. It would have been a big shame if I had not been able to do this,” he said.  

The potato bulbs germinated in Russia and the Russian partner made payments. But Tri refused to become a fertilizer sale agent, though he knew he would get rich. “I was willing to bet on my scientific research and sell my assets, but I didn't want to become a mere sale agent,” he said.

Tri is a busy man. Meeting with people daily is a part of his working schedule, because meetings can bring new ideas.

The idea of creating citronella oil distilling technology, the research work that helped Tri win the 2016 Vifotec Award, was raised after a meeting. 

The scientist discovered that the volume of residue produced by the citronella distillation process is large. He was asked by his friends if the residue could be useful. 

A new distillation technology was invented associated with the process of treating citronella residue, turning it into organic material for fertilizer production.

Tri said he hopes Vietnam will become a big essential oil exporter, because there are many plant species in Vietnam which can be distilled for essential oil.

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