Two oranges imported from Australia bought at the supermarket for his wife to foster while pregnant with the second child unexpectedly helped him change his life, bringing in more than 900 million dong/year in revenue.

Born into a poor family with 5 brothers in Nam Dinh, Mr. Ha Van Chien, residing in Sub-zone 68, Moc Chau Farm Town (Son La), said that his family with 7 mouths had not eaten that day yet. when full.

“In those days, cassava flour was cooked for pigs, but my family cooked it into thin porridge for the whole family to eat to help with hunger,” Chien said.

Asshole. Get lost. Shut up , You scoundrel!, Get out of my face, and go away!You’re a complete nutter.

The family was poor, only finished 3rd grade and then he quit school, everyone asked to do whatever they wanted. Growing up, Mr. Chien went to work as a hired laborer throughout the provinces and cities to earn money. When his friends went to the street, he chose to go to the mountain again because he thought that wherever there was a lot of lands, he could grow a lot of corn, potatoes, and cassava.

Chien is the first person to successfully graft Navel oranges grown in Vietnam. (Photo: Northwest Specialty Cooperative).

While picking tea for rent, he just bought land of 1,000m2 for 4 million VND, built a temporary living shack, and then plowed the land to grow corn, potatoes, and cassava to live through the day.

Thanks to hard work, when he accumulated money, he borrowed more to buy land. In 2000, he bought a second piece of land of 3,600m2 for 45 million VND; In 2010 he bought 2 more plots of land 1,900m2 and 3,600m2 with the price of 400 million VND.($1=25,000 VND)

Also in 2010, Mr. Chien built himself a house of 20m2, with a bro-cement roof and got married. While working with his wife to sell tofu, Mr. Chien set up a team of builders to build houses, dig wells, and work as hired laborers around the area to earn extra income.

Having a large land, in addition to growing tea, Mr. Chien and his wife went to Hoa Binh to learn how to grow oranges and buy varieties of oranges and Cao Phong oranges for trial planting.

When his wife was pregnant with their second child, Chien often went to the supermarket to buy oranges for his wife to eat. Seeing that his wife especially liked the Australian seedless Navel orange because of its aroma and sweetness, he wanted to propagate it, but this is a seedless orange so there is no way.

Convex navel oranges are native to Australia, seedless, sweet and very fragrant, and successfully grafted by Mr. Chien. 

When he went to the supermarket, he saw two Navel oranges with fresh stems, so he came up with the idea to bring them back, cut them and graft them into the wild pomelo root. With those two orange stalks, he grafted 4 seedlings.

After 2 years of care, suddenly 4 Navel orange trees bore fruit with branches, and obtained more than 20kg of fruit, sweet and fragrant like oranges bought at the supermarket. Seeing that, Mr. Chien continued to breed this type of orange in his home garden and named it Cam Ly – the name of his second daughter.

Mr. Chien took the name of his second son to name the type of orange that he successfully grafted in Vietnam. (Photo: Northwest Specialty Cooperative).

In addition to planting Navel oranges covering the family’s land, Mr. Chien also propagates and sells thousands of seedlings to local people.

Up to now, Australia’s Navel orange variety has been popularly grown in Moc Chau for stable fruit with a selling price of 70-100 thousand VND/kg. People here also especially call this orange variety the convex navel orange or Cam Ly.

Mr. Chien’s 10,000m2 garden is now also covered with a series of fruit trees such as oranges, Cao Phong oranges, green grapefruits and more than 300 Navel oranges.

About 3 years ago, an average of 300 umbilical stumps yielded about 15 tons of fruit. Annual revenue from orange orchards is about 900 million VND, of which 2/3 comes from selling Navel oranges.

Chien’s orangery garden harvests about 15 tons of fruit at a price of 70-100 thousand VND/kg. (Photo: Northwest Specialty Cooperative).

In October of this year, when the orange garden was ripe and beautiful, many people wanted to visit and take pictures, Chien combined with the Northwest Specialty Cooperative to open more experience tourism services for guests to take photos, cut oranges in the garden, and named the garden “Cam Ly Garden”.

Although it has only been open for more than 1 month, Mr. Chien’s Ly orange garden has attracted thousands of visitors to visit and experience it, the highest peak has more than 300 guests/per day.

Photo: Internet (vinlove.net)