Tyna Giang and three years bringing Vietnamese product to world’s largest organic food fair

Arranging the packages of sample products displayed in the Meet Europe 2018 held in Hanoi, Tyna Giang were proud of Biophap in which she is the general director and co-founder. Its products have been acknowledged as the high quality and sustainable ones.

Biophap’s first project with the involvement of the Bahnar ethnic minority living in the Central highland of Vietnam produced about one million tons of turmeric and ginger powder granted international certifications such as USDA, JAS, AB, Fair for Life.

This is also the first project in Vietnam to be ranked the first in the vote for 100 projects for climate coming from all around the world, held by the French Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and Sea in 2016.

In last February, Biophap was one of the seven members of the Vietnam Organic Agriculture Association (VOAA) representing Vietnam in the world's leading event focusing on organic foods Biofach held in Germany.

Currently, fresh fruit, spice and herb products with brand name Biophap are from the organic farms in Kon Tum and Gia Lai – two provinces in the central highland of Vietnam, under three international organic certifications including AB (Europe), USDA (United States) and JAS (Japan).

‘As a Vietnamese, I love fish sauce’

The 10-year experience living with the European people helped Tyna Giang connect deeply with her soul and motivated as well as inspired her to discover her own root with the philosophy and culture of the Vietnamese - “Love eating fish sauce”.

In 2015, she decided to leave the flourish Paris to come back to Kon Tum, Vietnam in order to develop sustainable agriculture with the local as she believed that doing business was not only to gain profit but also to contribute to the society and environment.

That is the reason why Biophap, a social business which is also a pioneer in the field of organic agriculture in Vietnam, was established. “Bio” means “organic” in French and “Phap” means “France” in Vietnamese; therefore, Biophap is the combination and intersection between two cultures of its co-founders.

Sharing with TheLEADER the reason why she came back to Vietnam as a startup in the organic sector, Giang said that at that time she realized that the country had a great potential and strength in agriculture with a young market; and hard-working and open-minded workforce who were willing to change.

Despite establishing Biophap in 2015, Giang started establishing the plan for her company’s ecosystem two years earlier.

During the first three years running the company, Tyna Giang faced a lot of challenges, especially the venture to find her team as she started her project with her passion only but knowledge related to agriculture, let alone organic agriculture.

After finding her team, it also took her a large amount of time to let them understand her idea and prove its potential.

Three years running Biophap without profit

After a number of difficulties since setting up the company in Kon Tum, Tyna Giang and her team can finally see their first outcome, with their products being introduced next month.

In the first three years, there was no product harvesting from organic perennials while the investment, R&D costs were very high.

Also, the planning, investment procedure, and policies in remote areas are not as supportive as those in large cities, leading to high administrative costs. Tyna Giang and her team had to spend a lot of time getting familiar with the local procedures.

On the first days, the company was run mostly by the capital from co-founders. Then it got an agreement from Agribank to invest in two projects. In the next six months, Giang and her team would call for investment from the European market.

“In order to get a loan from banks or call for investment capital from investors, enterprises must show them a clear strategy, transparent management, and the principle to follow the laws,” said Biophap CEO.

Thanks to Biophap’s vision to reach both local and international markets, it has more opportunities to get access to investment capital than family-oriented models. Having said that, the prerequisite to gain a successful business and attract foreign investors according to Giang is the transparency in borrowing and using capital, regardless of the scale.

Moreover, training and changing people’s awareness is another big issue. Biophap’s targeted market is not only Vietnam but also the global market with international certifications such as AB, JAS, USDA and Fair For Life; therefore, local workforce being able to use English is very necessary.

However, the number of young people in Kon Tum and Gia Lai having a good command of English is still limited, especially those working in the field of agriculture.

Also, the people living in remote areas usually has a very old and traditional cultivation habit of burning forest for land and does not have any knowledge about sustainable development as well as international markets’ strict standards of quality control.

Biophap must also focus on setting up the long-term plan to encourage the local to develop organic farms with larger scale for trading instead of maintaining small-scale and family-oriented production.

‘I do with all of my belief and passion’

Despite competing with a number of large companies in Vietnam and international markets, Giang said that Biophap has its own strengths to develop, especially working with local farmers in establishing the value chain.

Accordingly, Biophap commits to contributing 10 per cent of products sale price to an educational fund that empowers small holders to develop their BIO villages.

It also focuses on fresh and safe agricultural products granted international certification by investing in R&D to ensure the application of organic farming techniques on a large scale, information technology on farm management and information delivery, the creativity in each product as well as suitable consultation to better distribute products to different markets.

In addition, Biophap applies the agroforestry method with the combination between long-day and short-day plants to bring about different income sources to farmers, different products to customers and better protect the environment.

“With these factors, I am confident in our products which would be able to compete better in the international market,” said Tyna Giang.

Despite a lot of challenges, with a great support from her team, Giang always believes in herself and her products as she has developed the company with all of her belief and passion.

“If I don’t believe in my product and render that confidence to my team and the authorities then no one would believe in our product,” said CEO of Biophap.

In Biophap, people always follow a green lifestyle with daily exercise and the habit of not using non-organic waste such as plastic bags, self-cultivating by learning foreign languages, reading books and communicating with the local community.

For Giang and her associates in Biophap, organic products are not only  those for trading but also a healthy living philosophy that brings people and nature closer together.