Often people choose cities, towns, or towns, at least a place “near the road, near the river”… to start a business or start a business. However, the Director of Quang Thuy Wooden Chopsticks Production and Trade Cooperative (abbreviated: Wooden Chopsticks Cooperative), Director of Le Hoang Service and Trading Co., Ltd. (abbreviated: Le Hoang Co., Ltd.) Return to Quang Thuy commune, Ba Don town, Quang Binh province, a poor village, “a long way from boat to river”, when it rains it floods… to invest in production and business.
Quang Thuy is located in the lowland area south of Ba Don town, over ten kilometers from the district center. Before 1955, it was also known as Lam Xuan commune or Lam Xuan village.
After many years of implementing the renovation process according to the Party and State’s policies, up to now people’s lives have gradually improved, the appearance of the countryside has changed, but it is still a difficult commune. People actively participate in hunger eradication and poverty reduction programs (labor export, labor in industrial parks…), expanding occupations (making conical hats, civil construction…) but still purely cultivate rice, Life waits for potatoes and rice grains.
From being a locality with no markets, shops, or inter-village or inter-commune traffic…, Quang Thuy now has a spacious market hall, dozens of grocery stalls with many buyers and sellers, and many basic establishments. gas, other small repairs; Inter-village and inter-commune traffic has gradually improved, with concrete and asphalt replacing mud paths… But it is still a low-income locality (per capita income in 2020 – 2021 is less than 35 million VND/person/year; poverty rate remains above 1.5%); The roads are somewhat easy to travel on, but are still only suitable for small vehicles. Especially in the rainy season, they are prone to flooding and can be deeply flooded… Rain and floods are one of the things that haunt people. People here, if they are careless, all their efforts and assets (motorbikes, TVs, refrigerators, appliances…) will flow into the river and sea.
In 2017, for the first time in Quang Thuy, a wooden chopsticks production facility was born, people here often call it “factory”. In 2018, the facility converted into a cooperative model.
From a capital of several tens of millions of dong, a few workers, about 50 – 70 square meters of factory… specializing in the production of wooden chopsticks, the cooperative’s charter capital is now over 2 billion dong; Asset value is over 3 billion VND. The factory was upgraded and expanded to a 2-story steel frame, capable of avoiding flooding over 500m2, investing in machinery and equipment to produce new products such as coconut handicrafts (coconut shells, coconut toothpick jars, ladles, coconut spoons). …), wooden handicrafts (wooden baskets, wooden trays, wooden cups…).
The number of employees of the cooperative also increases every year, no longer the same as when it was first established. From having only a few technical workers, along with 5-7 seasonal workers… now there are over 20 skilled workers (self-trained), over 30 seasonal workers and more than 50 households doing home processing in Quang Nam. Thuy as well as some neighboring communes (Quang Tan, Quang Tien, Quang Son…).
In the past few years, despite not very favorable conditions (COVID-19 epidemic, erratic rains and floods…), the cooperative has still stood firm, achieving a revenue of over 8 billion VND/year. Wooden chopsticks products not only have a place in the domestic market but were also initially exported to Korea. Thanks to that, workers’ income reaches 5 – 8 million VND/month for skilled workers, 4 – 5 million VND/month for seasonal workers and outsourcing households.
Cooperative Director Le Thanh Trien is a Bachelor of Literature, has worked in many different professions in the southern provinces (teaching, tour guide…), after many times approaching fine arts, he fell in love with the art of woodworking. , wished, worried and then decided to return to his hometown to start a business and open a wooden chopsticks factory.
Like the wooden chopsticks cooperative, in 2018, Binh An automatic electrical control equipment processing and installation facility transformed into Le Hoang Company Limited. When first established, labor, capital, assets… were insignificant (a few technical workers, fifty or seventy million VND in machinery and accessories, a few processing contracts worth several tens of millions of VND).
Now, the Company has gradually developed spacious and majestic production facilities and offices; Charter capital over 5 billion VND, revenue over 10 billion VND/year; Attracting and signing long-term contracts for 05 workers with university and vocational college degrees, creating seasonal jobs for dozens of other workers.
The average income of technical workers is over 8 million VND/month, and seasonal workers are over 5 million VND/month. The Company’s products are no longer purely the design, construction, and installation of automatic electrical control panels (tabloids) for aquaculture but have also reached the construction of electricity and water projects with reasonable value. VND up to billions of VND.
Other features: Director of the Wooden Chopsticks Cooperative, Director of Le Hoang Hoang Binh An Co., Ltd. is a person who has undergone electrical training, has worked for many businesses, and is concerned about the need to apply science and technology to agricultural production. In general, and in aquaculture in particular, many farming households in the region have tried their best to learn, research, design, and assemble automatic control panels, helping to reduce effort and costs, ensuring ensure safety when using… and return to the village to start a business.
Setting up a business in the countryside is not a new direction, especially in recent years, workers have had to suffer from natural disasters and epidemics (COVID-19), but starting a business in a village like Quang Thuy and making a career out of professions. Rural agricultural industry… is not easy. As the directors think, when deciding to invest in production in the village, even though they have thought carefully, when implementing, besides the advantages (abundant land, human resources; government, local departments and agencies support and create conditions…), then many difficulties have arisen (increased transportation costs, unskilled rural workers, remoteness, difficulty reaching customers…), In which there are problems that are beyond expectations, even force majeure, such as: human resource training, flood and storm prevention… Rural labor force has potential but is unskilled labor, unskilled labor. train.
After establishment, due to lack of funding, lack of experience… it took some time for the enterprise to train itself qualified workers to operate machinery and equipment. In 2020, when production was initially stabilizing, natural disasters and epidemics broke out, difficulties followed difficulties, especially damage caused by floods, and there were times when it seemed like we had to temporarily stop production ( In that year’s flood, the water rose rapidly, rising over 2 meters, although we proactively prevented it, but we were not strong enough, so we had to regretfully abandon our machinery and products in the sea of water). After the flood, every business suffered heavy losses, but the wooden chopsticks cooperative was almost empty-handed, with losses reaching billions of dong… They could not give up, behind them were not only dozens of poor workers but also their honor, love for the homeland. They were determined again and stood up again.
Both units are not yet enterprises with seniority in production and business, but they have made significant contributions to hunger eradication and poverty reduction (prioritizing attracting seasonal workers, organizing product processing for local people). poor households, disadvantaged households…), new rural construction (funding support for construction of electricity, roads, clean water…), volunteer activities (rescue organizations, flood support, visits when people in trouble…). The Director of the Wooden Chopsticks Cooperative once thought, “Going back to the village to start a business cannot put profits first, the measure of success is jobs for farmers.”
With unremitting efforts, the products of the wooden chopsticks cooperative have achieved “Typical rural industrial products” for many years, won the Gold Medal “High quality products” in 2018, Ocop certificate (certificate of the People’s Committee Quang Binh province) 4 stars for the wooden chopsticks set, 3 stars for the coconut handicraft set. Cooperative Director Le Thanh Trien was personally awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Prime Minister for the achievement of “Joining hands for the poor”, Quang Binh Provincial Farmers’ Association was awarded a Certificate of Merit for the achievement of “Farmers emulating good production”…
Although success is just the first step, advantages and difficulties still lie ahead, but nonetheless they are truly people who dare to think and dare to do.
Hoàng Trinh
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