Leaving journalism, she uses digital technology to make Diep Bach Black Garlic to "save her husband".

Visiting the Tay Bac Cooperative (Vieng Lan commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province) – the production site of black garlic under the brand "Diep Bach Black Garlic" – a 4-star OCOP product famous nationwide, we were surprised by the bustling activity of this agricultural cooperative in the highlands. The processing plant had many departments working diligently: sorting raw materials, washing, drying, slicing, air-drying, packaging, inspection, labeling, and transporting goods… The workers were women of the Thai ethnic group from the region, originally farmers, but their work style was very fast, efficient, clean, and professional.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen Linh – Director of Tay Bac Cooperative – began our meeting with an unpleasant story: “Previously, I worked at the Bac Yen District Radio and Television Station (Son La province). In 2015, when my husband and some of his friends decided to invest in producing black garlic, they were unsuccessful, having to throw away dozens of kilograms of product while having to borrow every penny. After discussing it with my husband, I decided to quit my job as a journalist and come here to help him with the black garlic business.”

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen Linh – Director of Tay Bac Cooperative – introduced new products processed from agricultural produce from Yen Chau, produced by the cooperative.

With her dynamic and adaptable nature, coupled with the journalistic skills she had accumulated over the years, Ms. Linh decided to pursue her husband's aspiration of making black garlic using a more scientific method. First, Ms. Linh surveyed the market for fresh garlic in the district and province to assess the scale of investment and initial quality through the quality of the raw materials.

After realizing that many communes and villages in Yen Chau district were growing garlic with relatively high yields and good quality, and that it was entirely possible to form a sufficiently large raw material area for the production of black garlic as a commodity, Ms. Linh and her family confidently began researching methods for processing black garlic from fresh garlic readily available in the district market.

The Diệp Bách black garlic product of the Tây Bắc Cooperative has been recognized as a 4-star OCOP product and is currently distributed in many provinces and cities nationwide and exported to South Korea.

"Back then, we had very little capital and had to borrow money, so we didn't dare invest in modern machinery. We had to search online for information about processing methods, drying machines, and fermentation techniques to create a completely clean black garlic product, free from chemical intervention, that was still nutritious and delicious, aesthetically pleasing, affordable, and had a long shelf life. With all those criteria, we spent months searching for information, experimenting, and overcoming many failures to achieve success. Fortunately, the government is very interested in developing information technology and is open to managing social media, so finding information and assistance has been very easy for us. Now, Diep Bach black garlic from Tay Bac Cooperative has achieved a 4-star OCOP product, and the cooperative can produce more than 3 tons of black garlic per month; sometimes we even run out of stock," Ms. Linh recounted.

Using technology as the key to cooperative development.

Pointing to a display of dozens of products made from various agricultural produce – dried jackfruit, dried bananas, black garlic wine, etc. – Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen Linh said: "After the success of Diep Bach Black Garlic, which became a hot item, the Tay Bac Cooperative continued to apply science, technology, and digital technology to develop many new products. These new products of the Cooperative use raw materials entirely from agricultural products within the province and district, contributing to the consumption of agricultural products for the people, creating jobs, and increasing income for dozens of cooperative members. At the same time, it meets the criteria of the 'One Commune, One Product' emulation movement."

Since its establishment, the Tay Bac Cooperative has been repeatedly commended for its outstanding achievements in developing the collective and cooperative economic sector, building local agricultural product brands, and more.

To make those bold decisions, the Tay Bac Cooperative held lively discussions about developing new products. Ms. Lo Thi Lua, a member of the Tay Bac Cooperative residing in Huoi He village, Vieng Lan commune, Yen Chau district, Son La province, said: “I was originally just a farmer. Since joining the cooperative, I have been guided on how to use smartphones, desktop computers, and tablets to connect to the internet, link with social networks, and search for useful information for my work and the cooperative. For the products the Tay Bac Cooperative produces, we are assigned different tasks to research, such as: Where are the raw materials sourced? What is the best time to purchase them? What are the methods of preliminary processing and further processing? How should the goods be packaged and preserved? Where are the markets for these products?... Thanks to the useful information online, we have improved our understanding and arrived at investment choices with a high degree of consensus within the Tay Bac Cooperative.”

Taking us on a tour of the cooperative's processing line, which features nearly a dozen drying and fermentation machines with rather complex operating mechanisms, Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen Linh added: "Currently, the market for machinery serving processing technology is very diverse with many different types and vastly different prices. Thanks to the abundant information available online, we have chosen to invest in machinery and technology that best suits our needs and capabilities; in fact, for some components that can be manufactured ourselves, we have searched for information to produce them ourselves, avoiding unnecessary waste in investment while achieving high efficiency. Our Tay Bac Cooperative hopes that, with the attention, investment guidance, and support of the State and the development of Son La's agriculture, our cooperative will have many more high-quality, low-cost, and high-volume OCOP products to contribute to the further success of Son La's production chain."

Source: trangtraiviet.danviet.vn