A Vietnamese-American’s passion for Vietnamese agricultural products

TIN LIÊN QUAN
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While bringing livelihoods to Vietnamese-American fishermen or creating collective farms in California were not enough, Nguyen Hoai Daniel had returned to his homeland and passionately seek to establish a foothold for Vietnamese agricultural products…

Born in Orange County of California (US) surrounded by the Vietnamese overseas community, after finishing his bachelor’s degree, the young Nguyen Hoai Daniel had decided to head to New Orleans, Louisiana to build his career. He had been through environmental, natural resources, agricultural and community economy-related jobs.

Yet, the turning-point of his life only came in 2008 as he, together with his family, returned to Viet Nam for the first time. Four years later, he returned as the consultant for the development direction of the Mekong Delta, a region heavily affected by climate changes. In 2014, he decided to make long-term investments in Viet Nam.

Nguyen Hoai Daniel in his homeland. (Photo: In courtesy of the owner)

An exploration of native ingredients

Meticulously studied the Vietnamese language and culture, the young Vietnamese-American has made his way to the rural areas, guided the local people on cultivation to further improve yields, productivity as well as the livelihoods of H’mong, Dao, Thai, Tay ethnic people…

While Nguyen Hoai Daniel had previously cherished a project of creating whiskeys from Vietnamese corn kernels, or completion of Dao Do’s unique rice wine, yet his successes came with Song Cai Distillery. The distillery company was known for creating the first Gin spirit of Viet Nam and awarded three Gold and Platinum medals in prestigious international competitions held in the UK, the US and Hong Kong (China).

Dreamed of creating a quality, branded product, Nguyen Hoai Daniel’s company has developed a connected series of products that focused on rural, distanced areas with the slogan of “staying, eating, working together” with the local people to study and exchange knowledge.

Nguyen Hoai Daniel has committed to not only creating jobs, guaranteeing the output for products, but also transferring technologies, providing machines, building factories, warehouses, as well as guiding the local people to preliminarily process the ingredients to increase their incomes. He realized that foreigners were curious to learn about Viet Nam, especially the country’s culture and cuisine.

“For me, the company is not only about exploring the business opportunities and helping the community and the country, but also about serving the national brand ambassador. Fortunately, during my time of investing and doing businesses in Viet Nam, we had received many bits of help from the Government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the provincial Agricultural departments”, he stated.

“Go slow…to go fast”

Yet, Nguyen Hoai Daniel believed that building a brand is similar to farming: Using cattle manure for the field may not yield results immediately like chemical fertilizers but in the long run, it would be more environmental-friendly, while the land would remain fertile, sustainable. He agreed with the trending catchphrase “go slow…to go fast”, which is similar to the traditional Vietnamese idioms, “Haste makes waste”.

According to Nguyen Hoai Daniel, currently, Viet Nam is exporting many agricultural products, yet most are raw, unprocessed ingredients. For example, Viet Nam is the world’s second-largest coffee exporter and among the US’s main coffee suppliers, yet only 16% of US consumers think of Viet Nam when talking about coffee.

He showed that the University of Agriculture’s project of purchasing native corn seedlings had to suspend due to insufficient funding from 2002, despite the fact that those traditional corn seedlings attracted the attention of the scientific community.

Nguyen Hoai Daniel walked his way to the local forests filled with unique herbs. (Photo: In courtesy of the owner)

To establish a foothold for Vietnamese agricultural products, the young Vietnamese-American man believed that it is important to promote the importance and advertisement of agricultural products with geographical indications, showcasing the Government’s support to households, businesses operating in accordance with the law.

In addition, it is crucial to promote brand development in the high-end segment and export high-grade agricultural products, especially processed consumer products coupled with stories of their origins and importance in the Vietnamese culture.

“It is essential to preserve the traditional seedlings and cultural values so that domestic Vietnamese feel proud of introducing products to international friends, displaying the unique images and characteristics unlike other countries, specifically Southeast Asian ones. I hope that Viet Nam would further develop and leave its mark on the global luxurious goods segments”, Nguyen Hoai Daniel shared.

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