Success Story: From Photography to Fermentaries in Vietnam

Diversifying Income with Cocoa

Mr. Do Van Phuc is a photographer from Ben Tre Province in Vietnam.  Living in a small village where there were few customers, Mr. Phuc was interested in identifying additional sources of income.

Out of curiosity, Mr. Phuc began to attend cocoa demonstrations at his neighbor Mr. Tran Hung Son’s farm. Mr. Son built a successful cocoa business frequently visited by experts including members of the Nong Lam University cocoa team. Part of the business includes a nursery where he propagates clonal material provided by the team.

In 2003, he received 500 grafted cocoa seedlings from Mr. Son’s farm and planted them with his longan (fruit) trees.  In 2007, he attended a fermentation workshop held at Nong Lam University and began to practice what he learned. 

Encouraged by the results, he and his wife opened a small fermentary business, buying ripe pods from neighboring farmers and fermenting the beans. 

Mr. Phuc regularly receives a premium from the areas’ main buyers, WCF members ED&F Man and Cargill, due to the quality of fermentation. 

In addition to fermented and dried beans, he also sells fresh cocoa pods to local fruit markets.

Mr. Phuc is pleased with the success of his new business, “Cocoa arrived at the right time for our family.  Nowadays, our main income comes from cocoa.”

Mr. Phuc continues to work to improve the quality of his product.  His next project is to build a solar dryer to improve the quality of the dried cocoa beans during the wet season when cocoa production increases.

Recently, Mr. Phuc began collaborating with Nong Lam University to conduct fermentation experiments.

Read about the Cocoa Project in Vietnam