Dac Loc Fishery’s barefoot owner is stepping up

When Le Huu Tinh appeared at the door of his office, with his feet bare and his trousers rolled up, nobody from the media delegation recognised  him as the owner of Dac Loc Fishery Company, a leading white-leg shrimp producer in Phu Yen province.

This 47-year-old man looks like a farmer in a faded-brown T-shirt. “I’ve just been back from shrimp ponds. Today we catch shrimp for selling so I must be there with my men,” Tinh said while wiping sweat of face with his sleeve.

“Not only you, many people visiting my company do not recognise me as the owner of this shrimp breeding farm at the first sight. They thought I had to be a man in expensive and clean clothes,” Tinh said.

Tinh said he did not care more about expensive closes because he had to work with his staff everyday in shrimp maturation and spawning houses and shrimp ponds.

Tinh and his wife, Nguyen Thi Nga, started working in the shrimp breeding industry in 1991 as farmers. In the 1990s, they bought black-tiger shrimps from fisherman and then sold to local farmers for maturation and spawning. At that time, their goal was simply to earn enough money to support  their family.

“I had never thought about establishing a company or building a shrimp breeding farm like this.” Tinh recalled. “We were both born in farmer families so we just wanted to earn as much money as possible at that time to get out of poverty.”

During the period of  2001-2003, the United States sued Vietnam for subsidising black-tiger shrimp feeders, pushing tens of thousands of Vietnamese shrimp breeders into dire situation. Tinh and his wife were not exception at that time as his business fell into a deadlock. No one bought black-tiger shrimp for maturation and spawning and they were almost going broke.

To cope with the difficulties,  Tinh and Nga started to change into white-leg shrimp business, starting buying white-leg shrimp for maturation and spawning. “This was new trend of Vietnam’s shrimp industry ten years ago. I saw that would be a profitable business and I turned my business immediately,” he said.

From 2003 through 2006, Tinh developed his business very well. One day  in 2006 Tinh decided to expand business by building a shrimp breeding farm - a risky decision, but one that paid off, transforming his household business into a full-fledged company.

When Tinh and Nga started  Dac Loc Fishery Company - where Nga is director and Tinh is deputy director - their total assets were worth just $500,000. Today, Tinh estimates the company’s assets as worth more than $10 million.

His company covers 30 hectares along coast of Song Cau Town, comprising maturation and spawning facilities and shrimp feeding ponds. Nowadays, this is a work place for 150 people.

White-leg shrimp breeded in Dac Loc are provided to shrimp feeding farms nationwide, from Nam Dinh in the north to Kien Giang in the south. This is also one of the first shrimp breeding companies in Vietnam to achieve certificated Global GAP standard, a worldwide certification of agricultural products. This means Dac Loc products are qualified to enter every market in the world.

So how did Dac Loc achieve such success after just seven years?

Even though starting business as a farmer and has never graduated from any university, Tinh understood that he could only be successful if he applied science and technologies. Therefore, he joined hands with Thailand’s CP Group, the world’s largest shrimp farmer.

“I buy original shrimp breeding from CP and they provide technical support in maturation and spawning processes,” said Tinh.

While Tinh is overseeing maturation and spawning facilities and shrimp feeding ponds, Nga is in charge of trading activities.

“I also have 150 workers. My main job is going to shrimp feeding farms nationwide for  purchasing shrimps and then provide to retailers. You can see Dac Loc shrimp brand everywhere in Vietnam now,” said Nga. At present, Tinh and his wife are regarded  as successful entrepreneurs in aquaculture industry. But they have bigger plans. “My dream is build a shrimp processing factory to export to international market,” said Tinh.

Dac Loc’s success  has  attracted interest from a Japanese company that is looking for business opportunities in Vietnam’s aquatic industry.

Tinh said his company and the Japanese partner are planning to build a processing factory in Phu Yen province to support exporting into Japan market. He declined to reveal details of the investment plan, but said that the factory will be operational by 2015.

“We have been already in final steps to start the construction of this factory,” said Tinh.

Another group of Japanese investors also proposed to cooperate with Dac Loc for building a tuna processing factory in Phu Yen. Tinh said a subsidiary of Japan’s Ajinomoto Group had expressed to buy products from this factory to export to Japan. “Things seem to go smoothly now,” said Tinh. “I believe I can reach my dream.”