Vietnamese farmer realizes his dream of producing clean coffee like the way the Japanese grow Kimura apples
The Tet holiday in “debt”
In 1990, empty-handed, Uncle Nhien brought his wife and children to Lam Ha, Lam Dong to establish a career. Like hundreds and thousands of other new economic families, the husband and wife chose to grow coffee to make a living with the dream of escaping poverty.
However, unlike most people, Uncle Nhien said no to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Clean coffee seems to have a strange attraction, prompting him to pursue it to the point where there was a time when his family was like a bankrupt, had to go into the forest to live day by day. New Year’s Eve is flooded with debt is not a strange thing for that northern farmer’s family.
As a matter of course, the coffee trees without pesticides, without chemical fertilizers become stunted, pests and extremely few fruits. The continuous failure of crops not only flooded his family with debt, but also caused the couple to quarrel fiercely. Human endurance has limits, many times, Uncle Nhien thought about giving up.
However, the predestined relationship with clean coffee has kept Uncle Nhien standing strong against the objections. Not being able to borrow money, words in and out because of a different way of doing things or even those who are lazy to criticize that he and his wife are “lazy, refuse to clean the garden to let the grass grow to their head” did not make him fall in love. It even made this man more steadfast.
Finally, the turning point in Uncle Nhien’s journey to pursue clean coffee has also come. Around 1998, he happened to pass by an abandoned coffee garden, but the strange thing is that they are very lush, fruitful and free of pests. He thought that the genes of these plants were very healthy, so he quickly took the sprouts of these trees and grafted them into the coffee tree in his garden. To fertilize the plants, he uses pig manure or cow manure mixed with rice husks and uses coffee husks left in other gardens.
Photo: The invention of grafting many coffee plants into one trunk increases the strange vitality of a 30-year-old orchard without drugs
The farmer’s perseverance for 6 years has finally paid off, when Uncle Nhien’s coffee tree is healthy, produces more fruit and has a higher yield for the whole garden. Some of the stumps are still infected with pests and diseases, making the tree not viable for long. Therefore, he planted the seedlings next to the big tree and shaved off the bark, tied the two trunks together so that they “skin” to help the young tree absorb nutrients for the big tree. As a result, worms and insects focus more on the root to eat pests and help the plant absorb nutrients better. Just like that, for 28 consecutive years, Uncle Nhien’s garden is no different from a bonsai garden and is very healthy without chemicals.
Photo: The worms helped Uncle Nhien to loosen the natural soil for the past 30 years
The strange similarity between Vietnamese organic coffee and Japanese Kimura clean apples
Just like the “birth” of the magical apples named Kimura in Japan, making a difference is an arduous journey. At the beginning of the process of researching and planting a completely clean apple orchard, Mr. Kimura Akinori’s orchard was constantly attacked by pests. His family of 4 spends the whole day just catching worms, but the garden is still peppered when no chemicals are used. The Japanese farmer at that time had to sell his own truck, car, and eat weed because he fell into poverty.
Desperate, Mr. Kimura intends to seek death on Mount Iwaki. But by chance, he found a very lush apple tree right on the mountainside, around the base of which there were many insects, pests and fungi. Mr. Kimura quickly discovered that the decisive factor here was the original development of nature. Since then, he did not catch pests and weeds in the garden anymore and planted more beans, so that the apple tree grew completely naturally. Great results came in the 11th year, his apples were not deformed and even remained sweet when left for 2 years. Thanks to that, the Kimura apple is called the “miracle apple”.
As for Uncle Nhien, what this farmer cherishes is not only harvesting “sweet” coffee beans. He wishes to develop his clean coffee growing model for other farmers and bring this product to the outside market, to users who love “organic” products.
During the 10 years since 2005, he sent dozens of handwritten letters to then-Minister of Agriculture Mr. Cao Duc Phat to share his enthusiasm about clean agriculture, philosophy of natural land use, presentation of How farmers can reduce costs while increasing productivity.
He wants to dedicate his achievements to society, hoping to one day help Vietnam’s agriculture develop as well as countries like Japan and Israel. However, the letters he sent to the Ministry of Agriculture during those 10 years were unanswered. Undeterred, in 2016, the husband and wife visited the Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival and “dared” to buy a pre-processed coffee production machine for nearly 200 million VND. After harvesting coffee beans, Nhien and his wife brought their products to flower festivals in Da Lat or Dak Lak coffee festivals to introduce to consumers, but only received shakes of the head.
Sweet coffee after many years of tasting bitter fruit
The dream seemed to have reached a dead end because it could not find an exit, but a miracle found Uncle Nhien. Mr. Hoang Viet – owner of a coffee business system in Lam Ha, Laha Café, found his uncle immediately after hearing this farmer’s story. After 2 years of discussing the production process, Mr. Viet found that the quality of Uncle Nhien’s coffee beans is extremely good, with a natural flavor, firm, aromatic and non-porous beans.
Finding someone who shares the same vision, Uncle Nhien’s coffee was invested by Mr. Viet and made an organic product certificate. Not stopping there, Laha Café decided to buy all of Uncle Nhien’s output at prices 200% higher than the market. Uncle Nhien’s coffee brand was then born, available in his stores and will soon be sold in supermarkets, domestic e-commerce sites….
Notes passionately present about the natural ecosystem in the soil for 30 years of natural cultivation
Even his coffee brand is opening its way to the world when it is invested and developed by Mr. Viet on Amazon e-commerce site. It opens an opportunity to help Vietnamese clean coffee reach global customers and affirms to the world that Vietnamese people also have world-class products, just like Kimura apples of the Japanese.
In order to help more Vietnamese people have the opportunity to experience clean coffee, Mr. Viet will also introduce new products into his chain of stores. In the context that the organic product market is increasingly favored by Vietnamese people, this coffee brand is also having the opportunity to explode like never before.
In addition, Laha Café and Uncle Nhien planned to replicate the production model of especially clean coffee, without pesticides, chemical fertilizers and herbicides, helping any farmer to do it. His goal is to help Vietnamese consumers access high-quality products with prices comparable to other types of coffee. Along with that is cherishing the plan to export organic coffee “made in Vietnam” to the world.
Uncle Nhien is happier when he has a dedicated companion.
Uncle Nhien’s 30-year wish has now come true, this farmer still cannot believe that one day the coffee beans that he planted and harvested will be available everywhere in the world. The process of “stumbling, starting from scratch” of apple farmers Kimura in Japan or Uncle Nhien is a story that can inspire farmers who are falling into the vortex of “good harvest – loss of value, price gain” – crop failure and price pressure when product quality is poor.
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at Blogtuan.info – Source: cafebiz.vn – Read the original article here
