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- "Switching Gears" from Bank Executive to Aloe Vera Cultivation
- Bold Investment to Expand Products and Deep Processing
For many years, Mr. Nguyen Van Thu – Chairman of the Board of Directors of G.C Food Joint Stock Company (GC Food) in Ninh Thuan has partnered with hundreds of farmers in Ninh Thuan to grow aloe vera for export to Japan and Korea, contributing to "greening" arid lands...
Mr. Thu's company currently owns the leading Vietfarm aloe vera processing plant in Ninh Thuan with a capacity of 35,000 tons of fresh leaves per year, equivalent to 15,000 tons of finished products per year. Therefore, Mr. Nguyen Van Thu – Chairman of GC Food – is also affectionately known by many as the "Aloe Vera King."
In an interview with Dân Việt, Mr. Nguyen Van Thu said that in 2023, the company achieved a revenue of 484 billion VND, with a pre-tax profit of 41.4 billion VND, up nearly 12% and 16%, respectively.
"Steering" from bank leadership to aloe vera farming
We met "Aloe Vera King" Nguyen Van Thu (born in 1978, originally from Nam Dinh) at the 2023 Green Economy Forum organized by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham). With a simple style, Mr. Thu's story of "steering" towards agriculture left quite an impression, as he previously held the position of deputy director of a major bank branch in Dong Nai.
Mr. Thu shared that, due to the nature of his work in loan contract appraisal, he had the opportunity to travel through many regions and realized there were numerous opportunities for entrepreneurship and development in agriculture. On a trip to Ninh Thuan, he noticed that farmers grew a lot of aloe vera, but the market was unstable; sometimes they couldn’t sell it and had to cut down the plants.
"Seeing that, I felt very sad and sympathetic towards the farmers. From then on, I started researching and found that aloe vera is a wonderful food containing many valuable nutrients, and is also a great ingredient for the cosmetics processing industry. Japan, Korea, China… use aloe vera a lot in food and cosmetic chemicals.
The market scale reaches several billion USD and grows at a rate of 6 - 7% per year. That made me wonder: Why is such a good, high-value product not being effectively exploited in Vietnam?" – Mr. Thu shared.
"Recognizing the great potential, I chose to start up with aloe vera because I wanted to maximize the value that nature has given to people. I founded VietFarm Food Joint Stock Company, later GCF, built an aloe vera processing plant at Giang Dien Industrial Park in Dong Nai province, and gradually developed it into the largest aloe vera ingredient processing and supplying company in Vietnam," Mr. Thu said.
Accordingly, Mr. Thu linked up with many farming households in Ninh Thuan to grow aloe vera and form a centralized raw material area for GCF’s processing plant. To persuade farmers to supply stable raw materials for the plant, Mr. Thu supported the costs for building irrigation ditches, provided seedlings, technical assistance, and increased the purchase price of products.
In the early days after the factory went into operation, GC Food "opened" in the domestic market, and then in 2013, Mr. Thu received his first export order to Japan. However, no path is covered entirely with roses. "When the goods were shipped, I was very happy, but soon after, the partner reported that the aloe vera turned yellow, with a 3% rejection rate. They demanded to return the goods and compensation, but I persuaded them to come and sort the goods in person.
"A week later, the partner continued to report the yellowing rate had increased to 5%. I had no choice but to bite the bullet, suffer a loss of hundreds of millions of dong, and take back the shipment," Mr. Thu recounted.
Afterwards, Mr. Thu researched the errors, asked Japanese experts to guide him in establishing a production process and transferring aloe vera processing technology that met Japanese standards. By 2014, he decided to build an aloe vera processing plant in Ninh Thuan. For finished products, he kept them in storage for a week for multiple checks, then scanned them to ensure the products were free from foreign organisms. For shipping containers, he chose reputable partners and required them to provide clean containers that had never carried chemicals or odorous items. Before loading, all containers had to be inspected and thoroughly disinfected.
Previously, the factory bought aloe vera leaves seasonally, but now he suggested that farmers gradually trim and harvest mature leaves first. Thanks to this, the processing plant had raw materials year-round, and the aloe vera achieved high quality in terms of crispness, sweetness, and nutrition.
Boldly investing in product expansion and deep processing
To date, the aloe vera processing plant in Ninh Thuan can handle up to 35,000 tons of fresh leaves per year, with a finished product output of up to 15,000 tons/year. According to Mr. Thu, GCF’s processed aloe vera products are now exported to 20 markets such as Japan, Korea, Europe, the US, etc. In addition, GCF supplies raw materials to many large domestic food factories to produce aloe vera yogurt, aloe vera drinks, and more.
It is encouraging that in Ninh Thuan, aloe vera remains an effective crop, with an average profit of 300 million VND/ha. Typically, each farming household cultivates 2,000 - 5,000 m2, equivalent to a profit of 60 - 150 million VND/year.
After the success of the aloe vera project, in 2016, Mr. Nguyen Van Thu had the opportunity to expand his product portfolio when he realized that Japanese customers had a demand for nata de coco. Therefore, Mr. Thu boldly invested in the Vinacoco nata de coco processing plant at Ho Nai Industrial Park (Trang Bom district, Dong Nai), with a processing capacity of 20,000 tons of nata per year, currently the largest in Vietnam.
It is known that after the first nine months of 2023, GC Food’s nata de coco exports to markets increased by 31% compared to the same period last year. Of these, two major markets, Japan and Korea, grew by 20% and 25% respectively compared to 2022. Aside from exports, GC Food’s nata de coco and aloe vera have also been increasingly purchased by dairy companies in Vietnam to make fruit drinks.
According to GC Food’s consolidated financial report for Q4/2023, the company achieved revenue of 484 billion VND and pre-tax profit of 41.4 billion VND in 2023, up nearly 12% and 16% respectively. However, for the whole year 2023, the company incurred an additional 12.8 billion VND in current income tax expenses from two factories. This also caused the company’s after-tax profit for the year to decrease by nearly 8% compared to the same period, to 24.5 billion VND.
Sharing further about business activities in 2023, Mr. Nguyen Van Thu said that at the beginning of the year, there were difficulties in sourcing raw materials, but thanks to efforts to support farmers with seedlings and production subsidies, the raw material area gradually stabilized. Export activities were favorable. Major markets such as Japan and Korea increased their purchases of nata de coco and aloe vera products by 20-25%, so the company’s pre-tax profit increased sharply compared to 2022.
According to Dan Viet newspaper
