The dream of bringing Vietnamese chopsticks abroad

Chopsticks meticulously made from ebony, rosewood, and coconut wood, intricately carved with bold Vietnamese culture, gradually appear on dinner trays in Asian countries.

Chopsticks meticulously made from ebony, rosewood, and coconut wood, intricately carved with bold Vietnamese culture, gradually appear on dinner trays in Asian countries.
Chopsticks & bundles of chopsticks
Chopsticks are meticulously made from ebony, rosewood, and coconut wood, intricately carved with bold Vietnamese culture, gradually appearing on dinner trays in Asian countries and welcomed by international friends. receive. The poor countryside boy’s dream of bringing Vietnamese chopsticks abroad is gradually becoming a reality.

Leaving the city to return to the village and dream of changing my life

Lam Xuan was a poor village before 1955, then changed its name to Quang Thuy – in the southern region of Ba Don town (Quang Binh). In that poor village, young man Le Thanh Trien – nicknamed Trien “wooden chopsticks”, graduated from Quy Nhon University (Binh Dinh).

In 2013, he was sent by the company to Japan to work. He happened to visit a factory specializing in producing wooden chopsticks for export in that country, so when he returned home, he spent a lot of time exploring and researching the product. This product then decided to invest in a wooden chopsticks production facility in the city. Ho Chi Minh with the little capital that he and his wife had saved. At first, the production faced many difficulties when reaching the market, but with constant efforts, Trien “wooden chopsticks” gradually found a foothold in the city. Ho Chi Minh. In 2017, the handicraft wooden chopsticks products, mainly high-end products, of Mr. Trien and his wife accounted for about 70% of the market share of Ben Thanh wholesale market.

Ba Don town leaders visit the booth promoting products of Quang Thuy wooden chopsticks cooperative

However, this young man still harbored the idea of getting rich in his own countryside, with a facility specializing in producing fine art wooden furniture. Trien decided to return to his hometown of Quang Binh to start a business and develop it into Quang Thuy Wooden Chopsticks Production Cooperative (Cooperative) in 2018.

Determined to succeed, he began hiring skillful people in the village, then started teaching each person to get acquainted with the production stages. Just like that, from a capital of a few 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 has now reached billions of dong; On average, the unit sells about 120,000 pairs of wooden chopsticks every month.

Expectation of Vietnamese chopsticks reaching far

Mr. Trien’s “swimming against the tide” caused the “round-eyed and flat-eyed” people in the village to discuss and disperse because they thought that since the whole village had been farming for many generations, everyone wanted to “escape” and go out, so Trien ” “wooden chopsticks” suddenly “left the city and returned to the village” to work as a fine artist. But Trien thinks differently, returning to his hometown is to devote his intelligence and creativity… Mr. Trien said that although he has experience, he lives in the city. In Ho Chi Minh City, his factory mainly produces high-end products. Back home to build a brand, he had to start with popular products, mainly chopsticks made from wood, coconut wood, spoons, wooden ladles… and higher-end fine art wooden chopsticks made from Horn, bone, pearl, conch… materials have high aesthetic value, good quality, and are very popular in the market.

Although the Quang Thuy wooden chopsticks brand has found a foothold in the domestic market, providing stable income, Mr. Le Thanh Trien always harbors the desire for his brand to reach out to the world, affirming itself in other markets. “difficult” like Korea and Japan. He said that last year, wooden chopsticks from Quang Thuy Cooperative were exported to Korea but had to go through an intermediary company. The number of exports is increasing, showing that Quang Thuy wooden chopsticks products are very popular with international friends.

Currently, Le Thanh Trien is researching and about to launch a product line with Son Ta technology, a type of wooden chopsticks polished with a compound of Son Ta tree essential oil (abundant in Phu Yen province) and resin that is very popular in the market. favored by East Asian countries. It is expected that in 2023, Quang Thuy wooden chopsticks production cooperative will export about half a million pairs of chopsticks to the Southeast Asian market.

Thành Long