{"id":9917,"date":"2017-08-14T17:58:06","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T10:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/?p=9917"},"modified":"2026-10-01T01:28:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:28:56","slug":"ong-gia-mien-tay-khoi-nghiep-socola","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/ong-gia-mien-tay-khoi-nghiep-socola\/","title":{"rendered":"AN ELDERLY MAN FROM THE MEKONG DELTA STARTS A CHOCOLATE BUSINESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late 2016, a series of world-renowned publications, including the New York Times, Bloomberg, and Nikkei, praised Vietnam as the producer of the world's best chocolate. It was Marou chocolate, founded by Samuel Maruta and Vincent Mourou.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018This is the best chocolate you have never tasted,\u2019 The New York Times commented. Producing those delicious chocolate bars depends on high-quality cacao beans. According to Marou's founders, Vietnamese cacao is every bit as good as cacao grown in Brazil, Russia, or C\u00f4te d'Ivoire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When Marou entered its Ti\u1ec1n Giang chocolate in a competition, it won a silver medal in the \u201cbest bean-to-bar dark chocolate\u201d category (chocolate made from the cocoa bean all the way to the finished bar). Marou's 78% B\u1ebfn Tre chocolate also won bronze. This shows that areas capable of growing high-quality cocoa in Vietnam are not rare. Marou itself names its 5 chocolate varieties after the 5 provinces supplying its cocoa beans: Ti\u1ec1n Giang, \u0110\u1ed3ng Nai, L\u00e2m \u0110\u1ed3ng, B\u00e0 R\u1ecba \u2013 V\u0169ng T\u00e0u and B\u1ebfn Tre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even so, Marou's remarkable story has not, in reality, been able to transform the lives of many Vietnamese cacao farmers. Although recognized as one of the world's most suitable places to grow cacao, cacao beans are still far from common in our country, with output accounting for only 0.1% of global cacao production. Farmers also choose cacao only after many other crops, such as coffee, pepper, and cashews.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, not far from Marou\u2019s cacao purchasing point, also in Ti\u1ec1n Giang Province, the Ch\u1ee3 G\u1ea1o Cacao Marketing Cooperative had once been farmers\u2019 hope for a market for their beans. But iron doors, rusty locks and cacao fermentation machines never used even once revealed a sad reality: cacao farming here was dying.<\/span><\/p>\n

Farmers here say cocoa prices are very unstable. Fresh cocoa beans sell for around 2,200 dong\/kg, but at times the price has fallen to just 800 dong\/kg. Discouraged by low prices and difficulty finding buyers, farmers have had to cut down cocoa trees that were many years old for firewood. Gradually, the large Ch\u1ee3 G\u1ea1o cooperative, which once had 500 members, was left with only 15 members struggling to hold on.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Seeing cocoa trees being cut down one by one deeply troubled B\u00f9i Durassamy (Samy), a Vietnamese Canadian of Vietnamese and Indian heritage. Mr. Samy bears his mother's surname, B\u00f9i; his father was of Indian origin, and he was born in Saigon in 1951. Returning to Vietnam at age 65, he bought a plot of land in Ti\u1ec1n Giang, intending to rest and enjoy his later years. But when he visited a cocoa-growing area, he felt he needed to do something to help the farmers there.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018As soon as I returned to Vietnam, I saw how much farmers were suffering. They grew crops they could not sell and were forced to accept very low prices. Seeing their plight, I made no promises; I simply said that if everything went well, I would purchase cacao at its true value,\u2019 Samy shared in very fluent Vietnamese.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His sun-darkened skin, gray hair and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bear witness to Samy\u2019s 40 years of hard work in Canada. Yet as soon as he returned to Vietnam, his retirement plans were put on hold. Instead, he climbed onto an old motorbike and traveled Ti\u1ec1n Giang\u2019s roads to observe farmers\u2019 methods and find markets for cacao.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While pondering the matter, Mr. Samy was astonished to see international media praising the world's finest chocolate made from cacao beans grown by Vietnamese farmers themselves. He was even more surprised to hear cacao farmers approaching 70 or 80 say they had never tasted chocolate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having studied food processing at university and owned a mechanical-engineering company, Samy understood the basic process of turning cocoa into chocolate. He therefore planned to build a chocolate factory that would buy farmers\u2019 cocoa beans and create Vietnamese-made chocolate by Vietnamese people. With just 7 billion dong originally intended for retirement, the \u2018chocolate old man\u2019 officially began his entrepreneurial journey in his sixties.<\/span><\/p>\n

Samy's first challenge, like that of any entrepreneur, was knowledge. Although he knew the basic process of turning cocoa into chocolate, he still had to go through arduous experimentation to achieve the result he wanted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chocolate production can be roughly summarized in 12 basic steps: harvesting cacao pods, fermenting beans, drying and storing beans, testing and cleaning them, roasting, cracking and winnowing, obtaining the nibs and grinding them into cacao paste. To make chocolate, the next steps are mixing, refining as finely as possible, tempering, molding and finally packaging. For cacao powder, the paste is pressed into cakes, then finely ground, sifted into powder and packaged.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chocolate making involves two crucial stages. First, farmers must ferment cocoa beans correctly, for the right number of days and hours and at the right temperature, to ensure quality. Second, grinding at the factory requires specialized machinery.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early cocoa-bean investigations, Samy found it easy to locate and buy cocoa from growers because raw materials were plentiful. Producing beans of sufficient quality was another matter. Cocoa beans are generally dried and fermented naturally in sunlight, gradually changing from their fresh color to brown during fermentation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Weather has the greatest impact on fermentation. At certain points in the harvest season, it rains continuously for many days, even though cocoa beans must be placed in the sun within six days of harvest. In such rain, the beans over-ferment and no longer have sufficient quality for making chocolate,\u2019 Mr. Samy said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After fermentation comes grinding the cacao nibs at the factory. According to Samy, this is the most complex stage, costing him many sleepless nights. Chocolate-making machines are uncommon in Vietnam because few people use them. He traveled from North to South, to B\u00ecnh D\u01b0\u01a1ng and Th\u1ee7 \u0110\u1ee9c, searching for equipment but could not find suitable machines.<\/span><\/p>\n

With no other option, Mr. Samy drew on his knowledge as a mechanic who had worked for Boeing to study how chocolate-making machines operate. He created his own designs, then visited machine shops to buy machines or parts to assemble and build his own chocolate-making equipment. According to him, as much as 80% of the machinery in his current chocolate workshop was made by him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, designing and building the machine took a great deal of time because domestic workshops were too rudimentary to turn or drill precise holes, or refused to make special components not mass-produced in Vietnam. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The specialized machine for separating cocoa shells from the beans alone took him nearly 4 months of work. Once, he smashed the machine after taking it apart, reassembling it, and adjusting the airflow dozens of times without achieving the result he wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mounting difficulties seemed likely to halt the Vietnamese-Indian man's desire to make chocolate. Sometimes, when completely stuck, he did not know what else to do but run into the street and shout.<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-directed exploration, persistent production and testing continually swept Samy along. He even sold his Canadian workshop to fund the venture. It took nearly 2 full years of development in Ti\u1ec1n Giang before he produced his first successful batch of chocolate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI jumped up and shouted with joy when the first batch of chocolate turned out exactly as I wanted. My assistants and I yelled at the top of our lungs: We did it, we did it! I was overjoyed,\u201d the man in his sixties recalled with a broad smile as he looked back on that memorable moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"An<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The First Thing He Did After Successfully Making His First Batch of Chocolate Was Give It to the Farmers Who Grew the Cocoa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFarmers do not yet recognize the value of the trees they cut down every day. Letting them taste chocolate is one way to help them understand what can be made from cacao. I want them to understand that the cacao they grow can be refined into excellent chocolate,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

After successfully developing chocolate, Mr. Samy focused on expanding production. A factory covering more than 1ha opened in January 2017 in Ti\u1ec1n Giang Province under the name Kimmy's Chocolate. The Kimmy's brand was named after his wife, Kim Nguy\u1ec7t. \u201cAbroad, people can't pronounce Nguy\u1ec7t clearly, so they usually call her Mrs. Kim. When I returned home to make chocolate, my wife was also the strongest opponent, so I wanted to do something as a gift for her,\u201d Mr. Samy shared.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More importantly, after its founding, Kimmy\u2019s Chocolate voluntarily joined the Ch\u1ee3 G\u1ea1o Cooperative as an official member and purchased farmers\u2019 cacao for production. Samy\u2019s wish to find a market for cacao growers gradually became reality as the cooperative, once facing dissolution, revived strongly. His Ti\u1ec1n Giang factory now produces around 100 kg of chocolate daily and 3 tonnes of finished products monthly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although production is still only at the stage of gradually getting acquainted with the market, supplies from Ch\u1ee3 G\u1ea1o are already insufficient, since only 60-65% of each kilogram of beans yields material for chocolate. However, Mr. Samy says he will wait for farmers to gradually expand the growing area. What he still wants is for his chocolate to be made from cocoa beans grown on his own homeland's soil.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am not worried, because the quality of Ti\u1ec1n Giang cocoa is every bit as good as imported products from other renowned countries,\u201d Mr. Samy said as he broke a chocolate bar. He explained that good chocolate contains nothing but chocolate, sugar, and milk. It should melt automatically in the mouth without feeling gritty. In addition, a chocolate bar should make a crisp snap when broken.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To promote its products and expand distribution channels, Kimmy\u2019s introduces them to Vietnamese consumers through trade fairs in C\u1ea7n Th\u01a1 and Ho Chi Minh City. Kimmy\u2019s currently has 4 chocolate products with cocoa percentages of 75%, 65%, 55% and 45%, corresponding to dark chocolate, milk chocolate and filled chocolate,\u2026 To expand its market, Kimmy\u2019s will soon introduce a 35% variety suited to children\u2019s tastes and lower-priced mixed products.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"An<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For a newly established brand, difficulties arising from limited distribution channels are inevitable. But good news travels, and the \u201cchocolate old man's\u201d Kimmy\u2019s brand has begun to become known.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMany partners have already placed chocolate orders. In the near future, Kimmy's will sell its products through a French retail chain in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. We will also soon introduce cocoa powder for baking and cocoa-based cosmetic products,\u201d said Ph\u1ea1m \u0110\u00ecnh Ng\u00e3i, Deputy Director of Kimmy's.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still very young and formerly a teacher, Ng\u00e3i was drawn to Samy's intense passion and volunteered as his assistant. Together, they endured hard times. \u2018If you come here later and can no longer find me, just look for him,\u2019 the elderly man said, pointing to Ng\u00e3i as the next generation's successor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watching foreigners taste and praise European-standard chocolate bars labeled \u2018Proudly made in Vietnam\u2019 at the fair, Samy could not help smiling with pride. The owner of Kimmy\u2019s chocolate hopes that, in the not-too-distant future, tourists will buy chocolate in Vietnam to take home as gifts.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Collected<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Ch\u01b0\u01a1ng tr\u00ecnh li\u00ean quan t\u1ea1i YUP Education:<\/strong> X-Startup \u2013 kh\u00f3a h\u1ecdc kh\u1edfi nghi\u1ec7p \u00abKh\u1edfi Ch\u00e1nh Nghi\u1ec7p\u00bb<\/a> \u00b7 The Journey \u2013 l\u1ed9 tr\u00ecnh ph\u00e1t tri\u1ec3n doanh nh\u00e2n<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cu\u1ed1i n\u0103m 2016, h\u00e0ng lo\u1ea1t c\u00e1c t\u1edd b\u00e1o n\u1ed5i ti\u1ebfng th\u1ebf gi\u1edbi nh\u01b0 New York Times, Bloomberg, Nikkei l\u00ean ti\u1ebfng ca ng\u1ee3i Vi\u1ec7t Nam l\u00e0 n\u01a1i s\u1ea3n xu\u1ea5t ra lo\u1ea1i socola ngon nh\u1ea5t th\u1ebf gi\u1edbi. \u0110\u00f3 l\u00e0 socola c\u00f3 th\u01b0\u01a1ng hi\u1ec7u Marou \u0111\u01b0\u1ee3c s\u00e1ng l\u1eadp b\u1edfi hai ng\u01b0\u1eddi ch\u1ee7 l\u00e0 Samuel Maruta v\u00e0 Vincent Mourou.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9918,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9917"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18269,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9917\/revisions\/18269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yup.edu.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}