Cross-border love

Tran Thi Hue and Marco Kranz are a Vietnamese-German couple. Marco's previous job has nothing to do with agriculture, because he is an expert in information technology. In contrast, Hue is a genuine farmer. She has lived and worked in Da Lat for many years , with the main job being a consultant on production techniques of high-grade vegetables for farmers.

Marco works in Germany, Hue is in Vietnam, in different fields, so they don't have the opportunity to meet each other in real life but meet each other online through a dating app. Through their conversation, they found that there were many similarities between the two, because despite working in information technology, Marco was also very interested in agriculture.

When they got to know each other, Marco decided to travel to Vietnam and visit Hue. The first place in Vietnam that Marco came to was Hanoi. When he first arrived in this city, Marco felt familiar things, like in Italy decades ago (Marco's mother is Italian). Vietnamese dishes quickly conquered Marco's taste, making him feel closer to this country.

After getting married, Marco returned to his wife's hometown to celebrate Tet. Despite the language difference, Marco was still treated by Hue's family as a child in the family, not as a foreigner. Every time Marco went out, he was greeted by neighbors and neighbors of Hue's parents, treated in a very friendly and warm way, like an Italian.

That's why, when Hue invited Marco to come back to Vietnam to work in agriculture, he immediately agreed. Previously, Hue and Marco had seen the potential of the combination of one being an agriculture expert and the other being an information technology expert, in developing a farm. Marco also wants to make the best foods himself, first for his small family, then to meet the needs of society.

Bringing Technology to Organic Farms

Back in Da Lat, Hue and Marco went to find and rent a small garden, with a greenhouse, 2,500 m2 wide, and started to produce organically . This garden was previously planted with flowers. Because flowers could not be sold because of the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, the old gardener hardly invested in taking care of them anymore, but only watered the plants for a long time.

So, when Hue and Marco rented again, the residual chemicals in the soil were almost gone. Immediately after taking over the garden, Hue planted legumes to improve the garden soil to be more suitable for organic production. They took the name of their little boy to name the farm Max Organic.

When the land was improved, Hue ordered from Moc Chau (Son La) strawberry varieties originating from Japan that Vietnamese people used to call "Hana" strawberry. She grows strawberries on an area of about 1,000 m2. The rest grow vegetables such as sweet peppers, lettuce, red radish...

All of these vegetables are grown organically, without the use of fertilizers or chemicals. The eradication of pests and harmful insects in the garden is all thanks to natural enemies and hand-catching. According to Organica, Max Organic is one of the rare strawberry gardens in Vietnam that is being grown organically.

Because strawberries are very difficult to grow and have many pests and diseases, in the beginning, Max Organic faced a lot of difficulties when the worms grew quickly while the natural enemies (purchased from a company specializing in the production of natural enemies) were not yet available. adapted to the environment in the garden. However, thanks to her deep knowledge of agriculture, Hue remained calm, accepting losses in yield, and persisted in catching worms by hand while waiting for natural enemies to adapt and develop.

It takes 3-4 weeks for Max Organic's strawberry garden to establish a balance between natural enemies and harmful insects and enter into stable development. Hue still observes the garden every day to supplement natural enemies periodically or as soon as the density of pests increases.

Last December, the first fresh strawberries of Max Organic were put on sale in the Organica system. In order to bring these juicy and sweet strawberries to the market, in addition to great efforts in organic production, Hue and Marco also have to spend a lot of effort on packaging and preserving, because Hana strawberries are very soft. , easily crushed in transit if not packed carefully. In return, the organically produced strawberries from their own hands have been well received and appreciated by customers.

Another special thing about Max Organic is that based on Hue's requirements for temperature, humidity, and light for the garden, Marco applied his knowledge of information technology and designed his own sensor system. variable measuring temperature, measuring light, measuring soil moisture, air humidity.

With this system, the garden always ensures the right humidity and temperature for the growth of plants. Thanks to the application of information technology, Hue and Marco are always able to observe, control and operate Max Organic's activities easily even when they are far away. In addition, Marco also designed an underground drainage system so that irrigation water in the surrounding gardens does not penetrate into the Max Organic organic garden, thereby preventing the risk of chemical residues from other gardens.

Thus, it can be said that Max Organic is a garden that has successfully combined technology and organic production.

Up to this point, in addition to strawberries, many vegetables produced by Max Organic's organic method have been sold in the Organica system and are well received by customers. Recently, the farm took samples and sent them to the Netherlands by testing according to European organic standards, and all criteria were met. However, Max Organic still needs to wait for more time to carry out the necessary procedures to be granted organic certification.

In the immediate future, Hue and Marco will cooperate with a partner with a large land bank in Da Lat to build an organic production farm on a larger scale, with more output. At that time, the application of new technologies to production as well as the development of packaging and preservation technology will become easier to further improve the quality of organic vegetables and fruits made by themselves.

Source: Thanh Son