Young farmer sees much room for growth

Nguyễn Xuân Truyện develops mushroom production to bring revenue for his family and stable jobs to local people. — VNA/VNS Photo

LÂM ĐỒNG — After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in biotechnology at Yersin Đà Lạt University in the Central Highlands province of Lâm Đồng in 2011, Nguyễn Xuân Truyện moved to HCM City to developing a mushroom growing business.

The 33-year-old mushroom grower said when his parents first heard of his intention, they opposed it because they did not want him to follow such a demanding career as farming.

However, his love for mushrooms persuaded his parents to support him with some money. He was lucky to be taught by mushroom experts at Tây Nguyên Institute of Biology during a field trip to the university.

With the support of VNĐ200 million from parents, Truyện rented a 3,000sq.m of land in Vĩnh Lộc A Commune, HCM City’s Bình Chánh District, to build a factory with a mushroom growing and production line.

Initially, he had little experience and substandard production, leading to very low yield and low-quality mushrooms and embryos.

“However, failure teaches success,” he said. “After each failure, I gained more experience.”

After four years, he created a standard production process.

Not afraid of difficulties, Truyện diligently research books and consulted scientific websites on methods for growing mushrooms in hot and humid tropical climates like HCM City to develop his own “recipe.”

His production facility in Vĩnh Lộc A Commune currently has customers in the southern, central and Central Highlands regions with average annual revenue of VNĐ8 billion.

He shared the secret to creating well-developed mushrooms. “It is important when making mushroom embryos to create a high nutrient environment to help mushrooms grow well and increase the yield.”

He also paid special attention to his reputation and always spent time guiding customers on the most basic and effective mushroom growing techniques.

Having a brand name for his business and a number of stable customers, in 2019, Truyện decided to return hometown in the central province of Bình Định’s Hoài Ân District to open a second mushroom production factory on a 1,000sq.m area.

He said that based on the experiences of the first factory, the second facility’s operation was much more favourable.

Currently, the Hoài Ân District factory sells about 150,000 mushroom spores every month to mushroom growing farms in the central region and creates jobs for 20 labourers with a minimum income of VNĐ5 million per month.

He also set up a YouTube channel called “Mushroom Story” with more than 24,300 followers to promote products and share mushroom growing experiences for customers.

Secretary of the Hoài Ân District Youth Union, Lê Thanh Việt praised Truyện’s business model, saying “he is a dynamic young man who dares to think and dares to work in economic development.”

“The mushroom embryo production model is selected to be an effective economic development model to encourage young people to learn and follow,” he said.

Nguyễn Xuân Truyện was honoured as a model youth union member of Bình Định Province in 2021 and received the award of the provincial Innovation Start-up Competition in 2020.

He achieved initial success after 10 years but has no intention of slowing down.

“I am always eager to learn and explore new methods in production and believe that mushrooms are healthy food. I want clean mushroom products that can reach everyone,” he said. — VNS