Go to the highlands to make a career
Currently in Tran Phu Township, Na Ri District, Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan’s woodworking model is one of the bright spots in the economic development of this highland area. Just 2 years ago, Mr. Xuan invested in a peeling wood processing workshop in Khuoi Khieu Village, now it works stably and brings income, creating jobs for many local workers.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Xuan said that his family is originally from Phu Luong District in Thai Nguyen Province. Before settling in Na Ri country, he and his wife traveled to many places from industrial areas north to south, living only enough to eat, not to save for the future. In 2016, at that time, Xuan’s mother was working as a wage laborer in Hao Nghia Municipality (now Tran Phu Municipality), through daily stories between mother and daughter, he realized the great potential of economic development towards buying and selling forest products, wood processing.
Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan finds a way to maximize profit in wood processing. Picture: Math Nguyen.
Therefore, in 2019, Xuan and his wife decided to return north and move to Khuoi Khieu Village in Tran Phu Municipality to set up a business. Only 26 years old, as a young man daring to think and do, he boldly invested all his resources in buying residential land and building a processing workshop specializing in peeled wood using abundant plantation material in Vietnam.
Newly operational, it has had to face extreme difficulties due to the complicated evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic. But Mr. Xuan did not give up, instead finding ways to adapt to reality, merge with other units to keep production and have a stable market. That is the reason to help him overcome difficulties and be profitable in business.
Mr. Ha Van Trong, a worker specializing in the construction of charcoal stoves, said: Each stove costs about 50 million, of which the package worker accounts for 20 million. Dome furnaces should be built of red bricks with the right techniques; the lower half of the kiln uses clay mortar; The inner upper half is made of clay mortar, the outside must be made of cement. This ensures that the stove can withstand high temperatures and limits heat loss to the outside. The building process requires 2 workers, 1 assistant, the time to complete 1 oven is 2 weeks.
Ambition to turn surplus products into “black gold”.
During the production of peeled wood, Mr. Xuan found that many surplus wood products were good quality but had to be sold to wood workshops at cheap prices, so he was always thinking about how to make the most of this material. Through market research, the direction of charcoal production will solve the problem of excess wood according to their ability.
Mr. Xuan said the demand for charcoal in today’s market is very high. From small roast pork, chicken, duck to grill shops, grill shops that are springing up like mushrooms need to use this type of fuel. After learning to make charcoal and connecting manufacturing partners for this product, he began building 2 coal-fired stoves. The first is to design the kiln, keep economic accounts and then find and hire an experienced workman to build the kiln as a normal bricklayer will not be able to do this.
The cost of building such a charcoal burner is only about VND 50 million, but it will help Mr. Xuan increase the value of the wood more than three times compared to selling it to wood chip factories. Picture: Math Nguyen.
According to calculations, the operation of each kiln requires about 35 tons of raw materials, namely acacia wood, fatwood and other planted forest wood; The finished product reaches 12-14 tons of coal, depending on the quality of raw materials, and every 2 months each furnace burns 3 batches. The current raw material price is 500-600 VND/kg depending on the time, which is about 2,000 VND to produce 1 kg of charcoal. Since then, charcoal has become “black gold”, the sale at the factory is VND 7,000/kg, which means that the profit will be more than three times higher than the sale of raw materials for chopped wood.
Mr. Xuan said that the coal market is very big, and if there are many people in the area who are also investing, he is willing to share his experience. The price competition doesn’t bother him at all, but many people around are working together to create a production area. Charcoal is also easy to store, just keep it in a cool, dry place so you don’t have to worry about damaging it by its expiration date and causing economic damage.
Mr. Nong Van Canh, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Tran Phu Township, said: At present, the township has about 1,000 hectares of production forest, and people mainly live on income from forestry. In addition to a number of wood processing workshops, chopped wood in the area, the charcoal production model, like Mr. Nguyen Van Xuan, is also a way to help her develop the economy. With a budget of about VND 50 million, it is very possible for 2-3 households to invest in the construction of a coal stove, and the raw materials of the local people are very large.