A 40-kg Man with Heart Disease Still Starts a Business

Born in Cao Lãnh, educated through primary and secondary school in An Giang, and later attending Thủ Đức’s technical teacher training school in Sài Gòn, the young Võ Văn Triển was eventually swept by circumstances to Germany.

There, overcoming numerous language barriers, Triển graduated in mechanical engineering from the Konstanz engineering school and became the only Asian specialist at Maurer, a German company renowned for high-quality food-processing technology.

After years overseeing technical work with diligence and creativity, Maurer classified him as a senior specialist. But one day, a doctor said his heart condition would force early retirement. He decided to return home after 35 years abroad.

It was the start of mango season in Đồng Tháp. Convoys of trucks carried goods to China, while Japan and Europe offered better prices but few dared consider them because of their high quality standards. Đồng Tháp was estimated to sell around 20,000–30,000 tons of Cát Chu mangoes alone to China each year.

Because they rely mainly on this market, Đồng Tháp mangoes are vulnerable to price pressure and unpredictable fluctuations. At times of bumper harvests, prices fall so low that the mangoes are practically given away, yet no one buys them and farmers have to throw them out.

“In Germany and other EU countries, tropical produce is always expensive, costing ten times more. Thailand’s and Malaysia’s tropical produce is similar to Vietnam’s, so why can they export it?”

“I told my engineer friends at Maurer about the idea of drying fruit from Vietnam for export to the EU, and we began ‘setting up’ a new operating mode for the machinery to meet the processing requirements of tropical fruits and vegetables.”, Mr. Triển recalled.

He put more than 200 billion dong in savings into equipment and the construction of a fruit-drying factory in Thanh Bình District, Đồng Tháp Province. Many advised him simply to deposit the money in a bank and collect interest, which even at a low rate would be more than he could spend. But his dedication as a son returning from abroad far exceeded that sum.

Once, his family had to take him back to Germany to have 4 stents placed in his coronary arteries while he was straining to bring hundreds of tons of equipment to Vietnam. Yet as soon as he recovered, he returned to continue unfinished work, from teaching workers mango-cutting techniques to managing drying processes and developing a safe raw-material growing area…

After nearly a year building the factory and installing technology and equipment, by the end of 2015 the first two products—soft-dried mango and dragon fruit—from Triển’s Việt Đức Food Technology Co., Ltd. were officially introduced to customers. The soft-dried range has now expanded to include pineapple, kiwi, banana, lemon, and tomato.

Mr. Triển said these products are made using German technological processes and European standards, preserving their natural flavor without added sugar, salt or any preservatives. The company also controls nearly 70,000 ha of clean raw-material growing areas in Đồng Tháp, Tiền Giang, Kiên Giang, Bình Thuận and Long An provinces.

In early October, Việt Đức Company was busy preparing an export shipment to Japan. Meanwhile, a South Korean company visited the factory, expressed confidence in its technology and showed strong interest in its soft-dried mango and dragon fruit.

Although he possesses advanced production technology, Mr. Triển does not keep it to himself but is willing to transfer it to others to help Vietnamese agricultural products develop together. Thanks to his technology, a company in Bình Thuận can now make dried, chewy dragon fruit for domestic sale and export, instead of only selling fresh fruit to China as before.

Recalling This Story, the Overseas Vietnamese Man Simply Smiled Kindly: “I came back here to contribute. If everyone does a little, things will get better.”.

Collected