As a leading agriculture product exporter from pepper to coffee, Phuc Sinh has just returned to the domestic market with roasted ground coffee. The recent launch of Blue Son La coffee following the “From Farm to Cup” trend demonstrated Mr. Pham Minh Thong’s dedication and passion for coffee and Vietnamese consumers.
I know you feel surprised, as it is a long story. I have done agriculture product exporting business since 2001 with pepper export ranking top and followed by coffee. On a weekly basis, we export nearly 160 containers of all products, 80 – 100 of which contain coffee. We have factories in Binh Duong and Dak Lak, but similar to you, I have never heard about Son La.
I know you feel surprised, as it is a long story. I have done agriculture product exporting business since 2001 with pepper export ranking top and followed by coffee. On a weekly basis, we export nearly 160 containers of all products, 80 – 100 of which contain coffee. We have factories in Binh Duong and Dak Lak, but similar to you, I have never heard about Son La.
I come from Hai Phong, but I have never visited Son La before. Few years ago, on a visit to Son La with my friends, I was extremely surprised to discover that given abundant coffee, no complete factories existed here. I then found that locals had planted coffee for 30 – 40 years with total output of 40,000 tons per year. Really impressed by the original coffee, I told myself that I would spend time on it.
We then invested in researching and involved many experts all of whom were really impressed during the survey. Afterwards, we invited our customers from German and Holland to join us in the investigation. They said they had traded coffee many times in Vietnam, but had not ever thought of Son La like the way our friends only knew Da Lat and Dak Lak instead of Son La in discussion with me.
From then on, I found it an open-wide opportunity as Phuc Sinh is always a pioneer. We made quick investment decision, and it took us only 8 months to complete the factory with total investment costs of over VND 100 billion and the whole production line imported from Colombia thanks to great support from Son La Province People’s Committee. Upon investigation of many areas, we found that only Colombia production line was able to carry out wet processing for a special coffee product. At the factory launch at the end of 2018, I invited 250 customers in Vietnam and all over the world who were all surprised and interested in the original coffee taste and beautiful land.
Why Blue Son La instead of Phuc Sinh’s previous brands? Why do you clearly orientate your product as “From Farm to Cup”?
Why Blue Son La? Phuc Sinh ranks in first place in terms of quantity, but has yet to be famous, which drives me to choose Blue Son La as my own coffee brand. With experience of 10 years in producing roasted ground coffee and 3 recent years in selling filtered coffee at supermarkets, we are well aware that food hygiene is always a difficult problem. Products are required to be customer-oriented, so package colors and the name Blue Son La both signify greenness and safety.
Given the world’s and Vietnam’s consumers’ preference to know about where the coffee is planted, by whom and how safe it is, we are highly proud to be Vietnam’s first “From Farm to Cup” coffee planting and producing company. In particular, we have collaborated with farmers and outsourced foreign experts to guide them how to do farming and use fertilizer to ensure hygiene and safety from planting to harvesting to the factory. Phuc Sinh coffee production and processing factory in Son La was modernly invested in accordance with environment standards and the global UTZ and BRC coffee production certifications to ensure responsible production under the Son La brand name. Aiming at earning money in parallel with sustainable development for years to come, we persist in investing in “From Farm to Cup” coffee products.
As I know, if we promote the “From Farm to Cup” trend, consumers will enjoy tangible benefits.
With Germany as the top export destination, which brands make major contribution, Blue Son La or others?
After strong arguments, Phuc Sinh managed to keep the brand name as exporters want to label their logo and name on our products. We persuaded that it was an original product. They could buy other products, but if they want to buy this product, it must be named as Blue Son La.
As far as I am concerned, you are “covering a conspiracy” to conquer domestic customers who come to enjoy original coffee exported by Phuc Sinh for long at your own coffee shops. Could you “uncover” it?
Yes, we are building a chain of “Kcoffee” coffee shops in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The chain takes 2 forms: coffee house and coffee express. With regard to the former with total area of over hundreds of square meters, customers could enjoy all original and special coffee by Phuc Sinh along with famous sweet and salted cake brands in the market. The latter with a total area of less than 100 square meters serve a majority of take-away customers.
I aim at opening about 30 shops nationwide in 2019 and am offering free franchise for those who want to open shops in the chain this year.
What you like most about your entrepreneurship till now?
Personally I think if you have great passion, ambition and can-do spirits, you could realize your passions.
Thank you very much!
By Congthuong.vn
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