Write your startup dream from drops of honey

Born in 1990, graduated from the Academy of Journalism and Communication, Ms. Ngoc Linh used to have a stable job at a company under the Vietnam Education Publishing House. In the middle of the bustling city, she always yearned to return to her hometown, restore the forest ecosystem and create products with sustainable value for human health and the environment.

With a capital of more than 900 million VND saved by the couple, on an area of 3 hectares of hilly land, no electricity, no water, no phone signal, she started by planting trees to cover the bare hills, afforesting with native trees, then interspersing medicinal herbs and fruit trees.

During her honey collecting trips, Ms. Linh thought that if she only sold pure honey, the value would be low and she would be vulnerable to competition. She wanted to create a honey product line that was not only clean, but different, and truly good for the health of users.

The journey of the honey grower

From that idea, Ms. Ngoc Linh began to learn about natural honey fermentation techniques. Natural fermentation helps honey transform into a form rich in enzymes, organic acids and probiotics, which is beneficial for digestion and resistance.

Ms. Nguyen Le Ngoc Linh and products

Fermented honey is a traditional method from Europe but at that time was quite unfamiliar in Vietnam. "I wanted to create a product that was not only clean but also good for both people and the environment," Ms. Ngoc Linh confided.

Ms. Ngoc Linh has created conditions for women participating in the cooperative to attend training courses on beekeeping techniques, online sales techniques, etc. We do not have to leave our hometown to work far away but still have stable jobs and incomes.

Ms. Quach Thi Ly (Thanh Xuan village, Hoa Quy commune, Thanh Hoa province)

With no available recipe or Vietnamese documents to guide her on how to properly ferment honey, Ms. Ngoc Linh learned on her own through foreign documents, discussed with microbiology experts, and tested hundreds of batches of yeast with different ratios.

Ms. Ngoc Linh has lost count of the number of times her honey has foamed, and once she fermented it incorrectly and had to throw away the entire batch of honey, but she corrected her mistakes, and each failure is a lesson learned. Not giving up, she decided to invest in machinery systems such as yeast killers, honey fermentation equipment, bottle sterilizers, and used lead-free earthenware jars from traditional craft villages to ensure the safety of the fermentation process.

Little by little, the fermentation formula was perfected. To increase the value of the product, she combined honey with purple garlic, wild ginger, red turmeric, moringa leaves, mint, etc. to create product lines that are different from the market.

Fermented honey products

All have natural flavors, no preservatives, no additives, rich in enzymes, organic acids and probiotics. These products not only help increase health protection but also create a unique flavor for each product line.

Each jar of fermented honey from the "Ban Tho Forest Garden" Cooperative is carefully packaged and has quality, complete with inspection papers, traceability codes, and a story behind each product. Currently, the Cooperative founded by Ms. Ngoc Linh has developed more than 10 lines of fermented honey products, achieving 3-star OCOP certification at the provincial level.

Talking to PNVN, Ms. Ngoc Linh excitedly said: "The special point in the cooperative's model is the connection between people in the surrounding area to raise bees and grow medicinal herbs, creating a closed chain: From planting trees, raising bees, processing, fermenting, packaging to distributing products to the market.

Currently, the "Ban Tho Forest Garden" Cooperative founded by Ms. Ngoc Linh has more than 10 lines of fermented honey products, including key products such as: Fermented garlic honey, Ginger and turmeric honey, Fermented moringa honey...

The cooperative also actively organizes training courses and shares techniques of wild beekeeping and medicinal plant cultivation for young people and women in the commune. Many households have learned how to raise bees and grow medicinal plants to increase their income.

"In the past, people only went to the forest to exploit wood. Now people know how to plant trees, raise bees, sell honey, and sell medicinal leaves. That is a big change in Hoa Quy commune," Ms. Ngoc Linh shared.

Lessons on the entrepreneurial journey

Starting a business with fermented honey not only helped Ms. Nguyen Le Ngoc Linh build her personal brand and develop her family's economy , but also opened up a new direction: Taking nature as a friend, taking science as the foundation, taking the community as the center, to create different, valuable and sustainable products.

Fermented honey production area

Ms. Ngoc Linh shared that when starting a business, especially starting a business in the field of clean agriculture, it is necessary to determine from the beginning that it is "going for the long haul". If you choose short-term, chasing profits, it is easy to fall into the trap of cheap prices and unstable output.

In addition, women entrepreneurs need to spend a lot of time learning, be willing to test new formulas, improve processes, conduct microbiological testing, and work with experts to ensure product safety.

To start a sustainable business, instead of importing raw materials from other places, Ms. Ngoc Linh prioritizes using local medicinal herbs, both to save costs and to preserve native plant varieties such as mac khen, mugwort, and moringa. That creates unique products, both high quality and bearing the mark of the region.

Ms. Linh added that starting a business is not only about enriching yourself but also a way to develop and be responsible to the community, so that local people can participate and benefit, so that women can find a livelihood from their homeland.

Ms. Nguyen Le Ngoc Linh has received many awards from the Women's Union at all levels in the province such as: Special prize in the "Creative Startup for Rural Youth 2020" contest; first prize in the "Startup Ideas of Thanh Hoa Provincial Youth Union 2021" contest; Top 10 Techfest; Luong Dinh Cua award...

Source: https://phunuvietnam.vn/viet-giac-mo-khoi-nghiep-tu-nhung-giot-mat-20250807143131832.htm