Trần Thị Quỳnh Vân working on her farm in Hải Phòng. — VNA/VNS Photo Hoàng Ngọc

HẢI PHÒNG — After studying accounting, Trần Thị Quỳnh Vân had a change of heart and decided to become a food seller instead.

After years of work, Vân is now the owner of a farm of more than three hectares producing clean fruits and vegetables in Hưng Đạo Ward, Dương Kinh District of Hải Phòng.

Vân, who was born and raised in Thái Thuỵ District of Thái Bình Province, moved to Hải Phòng after graduating from the University of Commerce in 2011.

In the city, she found a job as a seller at a grocery shop. With devotion to her job, she was promoted to sales manager.

With six years of working experience, Vân boldly opened her own shop supplying vegetables, fruits and clean agricultural products.

Her products were trusted by consumers. So, she opened a second store supplying locally-produced clean vegetables and fruits and OCOP (one commune, one product) products.

Lê Thu Lan from Hồng Bàng District, who is a long-time customer of the clean agricultural products provided by Vân's shop, said that Vân’s products have clear origins and guaranteed quality.

She and many other customers trust the products, she said.

Vân said: “Currently, clean food is an important factor to protect human health. Therefore, I always try to provide customers the best and safest agricultural products.”

With these business principles, Vân decided to scale up her business.

She invested in setting up her own farm.

Finding that the suburban area of ​​Hải Phòng had a lot of abandoned land, in 2020, she rented land for agriculture production and established a co-operative named Happy Farm.

After more than two years of work, her three-hectare farm has supplied the market many clean products such as strawberries, grapes, melons, and seasonal vegetables.

Currently, she is expanding the farm's use with on-site shopping and camping for students.

Dương Kính Mai Phương, the secretary of the district Youth Union, said Vân’s model of Happy Farm is a destination for other farmers to learn and share experiences to do clean agricultural production.

This model should be encouraged and replicated in Dương Kinh District, she said.

Special products of Hải Phòng

Although she was not born in Hải Phòng, Vân has a desire to build a unique agricultural product brand for this city.

Red flamboyant flowers are the symbol of the city and in 2021, she and her sister, who is an expert of food technology, were able to produce a wine from such flowers named Phượng Cháy Wine.

“Flowers have chemical structures. Many fermentable ingredients are beneficial to health, so people in many other countries have been able to produce alcohol from the combination of agricultural products with flowers. And the red flamboyant is such a flower,” Vân said.

“To ensure the quality of wine. The flower must be harvested fresh without having changed colour,” said Vân. “After being harvested, the flowers must be preliminarily processed within a day.”

Phượng Cháy Wine brand was granted a Certificate of Food Safety and Hygiene by Hải Phòng’s Department of Industry and Trade and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

She plans to bring to the market about 1,000 liters of Phượng Cháy Wine this year.

Phượng Cháy Wine won third prize at a contest at Hải Phòng Start-up in 2022.

With a passion for the agricultural industry, accountant-turned-farmer Trần Thị Quỳnh Vân is continuing to work diligently and persistently for the goal of producing clean agricultural products for consumers and building a special product for the port city of Hải Phòng. — VNS