Coming to Bac Tan Uyen district, we were introduced to many effective collective economic models of the home district. Tan My Cooperative is one of them. It gathered the like-minded farmers to get rich right on their home land.
Tan My cooperative buys oranges and grapefruit of farmers in the area. Photo: Hoang Phong
The difficulty emerges the wisdom
Tan My commune is in orange and grapefruit season. The two sides of the road to the commune have a long distance of several kilometers of oranges and pomelos. The garden is covered with shade, plus the faint scent of grapefruit flowers to dispel the hustle and bustle of the city. It was sunny, the farmers here diligently pruned branches, harvested oranges and grapefruit to sell to the Tan My cooperative.
Mr. Le Minh Sang, Director of Tan My Cooperative - a typical farmer of Bac Tan Uyen district, said that the taste of pomelos and oranges in Tan My commune is as sweet as in Bach Dang commune (Tan Uyen town) or Hieu Liem commune. (Bắc Tân Uyên), because it is alluvial by the Dong Nai river. About 10 years ago, pomelos and oranges in Tan My began to attract the attention of many traders. At that time, the area of citrus plantation in the commune was only a few hectares. Oranges, grapefruit in the commune were in good season, and traders bought from Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai. Winning the season but the driver forced the price, the joy of farmers planting oranges and grapefruit is not complete.
In 2015, he established the Tan My cooperative, determined not to be injured by traders to price, to find a stable output for his own grapefruit garden and members of the cooperative. In the first days of its establishment, 9 brothers and sisters in the cooperative were always thinking of ways to solve the output problem for oranges and grapefruit. Each person works, people carrying oranges and grapefruit marketing everywhere, people researching to increase productivity for orange and grapefruit trees.
He and his brothers in the cooperative are determined to develop orange and grapefruit models according to VietGAP standards, actively looking for well-known purchasing enterprises to ensure a stable output for oranges and grapefruit. Thanks to that, the quality and reputation of oranges and pomelos of Tan My increased day by day, the output for oranges and pomelos became more and more stable, so the income of the members also increased significantly.
From the initial 9 members, the cooperative now has 21 members with 68 hectares of oranges and pomelos, of which 18 hectares are being harvested. On average each month, the cooperative provides about 45 tons of oranges and grapefruit to the market, the average revenue of each member is more than VND 200 million / year.
A good way to do it
Mr. Sang said, once a month members of the cooperative meet to discuss many issues: Market prices, pest and disease situation, crop yield. Each time they meet, the members have to discuss their work to go home.
In order to reduce input costs, the cooperative also buys fertilizer in large quantities for distribution to farmer households. Besides, the co-operative equips more vehicles to transport oranges and grapefruit to its members. To improve product quality, VietGAP standards are widely applied to farmers in the area. Farmers who are not yet a member of the cooperative are also enthusiastically guided by the cooperative members on the technical process of growing orange pomelos according to VietGAP standards.
The cooperative also regularly organizes to learn experiences from the models of fruit tree planting in Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces and the Mekong Delta provinces. Through these trips, not only helped the members learn the techniques of planting and tending fruit trees, but they also learned about service business models related to orchards such as eco-tourism and tourism. Hick.
Mr. Sang assessed that it is possible to apply business models based on his orchard to create added value for orange and grapefruit orchards when the opportunity is ripe. Currently, in addition to distributing to traders from provinces, cities and cooperatives, they also distribute to Co.opmart, Big C supermarket systems ... Thanks to stable output, many members of the cooperative rising to the rich, can be mentioned as Mr. Nguyen Van My, Mr. Do Phuong Thanh ... have an income of over 300 million / year. Mr. Sang himself has been very successful with his orange and grapefruit orchards.
Thanks to the way of working towards the common interests of the members, the Tan My cooperative has more and more members participating in order to bring the names of oranges and pomelos of Tan My to far. Thanks to the private and effective way, the collective economic model of Tan My cooperative is highly appreciated and praised by the district and province many times.
Reported by Hoang Phong – Translated by Vi Bao
