A poor farmer made a fortune from mushroom production

Being born and growing up in a rural family, Mr Le Trong Hai living in Commune No 9, Binh Loc village, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province lacked opportunities to pursue proper education since he was young. He had to leave his school early to help his family with agricultural production.

From a poor farmer to an entrepreneur

In 2005, on a study tour organized by Ha Tinh Agricultural extension center to Hung Yen province, Hai observed that the mushroom planting is fast and it can yield high economic value in a short time. At the same time, the Institute of Agriculture Genetic (IAG) held a five-day training course for farmers in Ha Tinh town on mushroom planting techniques.

Mr Hai registered to attend the course without any hesitation. Apart from knowledge gained from the training course, he actively searched for reference materials and learned from other successful models on mushroom planting inside and outside the province. Mr Hai was convinced about the economic prospective of developing mushroom plantation in his province.

How it started

Seeing Mr Hai’s ambition to make a fortune in mushroom planting, his family bought needed materials and planted 5,000 bags of Linh Chi mushroom. Mr Hai sold them for 25 million dongs. Through this activity, Mr Hai realized other benefits in addition to the quick growth of mushroom – high quality of and market demand for mushrooms. He was confident to deposit the ownership certificate of the land he owned at the bank to obtain a loan for constructing his house and steaming stove.

In the meantime, Mr Hai mobilized 18 people to form the Quang Trung Mushroom Cooperative. Four of them are members of the Administration Board chaired by Mr Hai. Set up in October 2007, the cooperative initially focused on constructing a business plan, purchasing seeds and bags in the IAG. As production inputs, it used rice plants, wood powder and cotton available in the province.

The start-up of the business was difficult because of limited experience. Mushrooms grew slowly and were destructed by insects. The bank loan became a burden on Mr Hai. Nevertheless, he did not give up but tried to overcome the difficulties even harder. Thanks to these efforts, the products of Quang Trung Mushroom Cooperative increased and improved quickly in quality. All products were purchased by the IAG. Moreover, his cooperative has penetrated into the markets of Quang Binh province, Nghe An province and Ha Noi city.

Business activities

Quang Trung Mushroom Cooperative focuses on producing various kinds of mushrooms such as Linh chi, Moc Nhi, Mo and So. The plantation time lasts from August to April as the weather is cool during these months. According to Mr Hai: “The mushroom plantation job is easy to do and brings about high income”.

Mr Hai is using 0.5 ha of his own land to build the base for planting mushroom. Besides, he encourages his members to plant mushroom on their own land. He says that if mushrooms grow well, the cooperative can harvest 0.25 tone of Linh Chi, 1.2 tones of Moc Nhi, 4 tones of Mo and 1 tone of So each year. The profit reaches almost 100 million dongs after taking into account all the expenses. The success of his cooperative not only brings prosperity to his family but also creates jobs and income for other members in the village.

Currently, mushrooms made by the cooperative are all consumed by Chinese consumers and are insufficient to sell to other provinces in the country. The cooperative also supplies mushroom seeds to other cooperatives in the province such as Cam Xuyen, Huong Khe and Duc Tho. Mushroom plantation also helps produce materials for agricultural production such as bio-fertilizer made from post-harvest mushroom bags, hence it also benefits the environment.

Regarding the plans and desires for the future, Mr Hai and other members of the cooperative expressed the need for stronger support from local authorities and sponsors including labelling, purchasing, packaging machines, product advertisement, building managerial skills, etc.

Ms Tran Thi Huyen - KMO and M&E officer