Nguyen Thi Anh, director of the Song Tien Seafood Company, realised that even though her homeland was rich in seafood and food but the life of local people remains hard. When she worked for a State-owned seafood processing enterprise, she had opportunities to travel to foreign countries, where she saw her favourite food. On the contrary, in Tien Giang people lived a hard life despite being next to a clam ‘mine.’ From then on, an idea of improving the living standard with the clam business was in her mind.
After leaving the Tien Giang Seafood Company, with five tael of gold, Anh and a close friend in Ben Tre opened a business establishment for boiling and selling clams. At that time, clams were priced at VND 300-400 per kilogram. With 15 tanks, each day her establishment boiled between 30 and 40 tonnes and transported them to Saigon for sale. Learning about a huge demand of the market, after a short time, she rented land from a fish sauce production establishment to build a plant for processing clams. She hired people to design and make a one tonne per hour clam boiling line. On that basis, in 1996, the Song Tien Trade Company (SOTICO) was established. On it early days, the company faced many difficulties due to a lack of capital. Fortunately, it was run by a manager with good knowledge about clams and the seafood industry.
With experience she learnt during trips to foreign countries and under guidelines of the Directorates for Standard and Quality, her company applied for the EU’s production conditions and standard, and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) to its production activities. As a result, SOTICO passed tests of quality management organisations. In late 1996, the company was granted with a code for exporting its product to Europe. The company was among 18 enterprises in Vietnam licensed to export products to the market. For a further improvement in her management skills, Anh joined the first Denmark-sponsored training courses on improving the quality of exported seafood. In 1994-2000 period, clams represented a main export of her company.
In 2003, due to difficulties in clam supplies and high prices, the company shifted to new products to meet the market demand. Thanks to its ability to predict market tendencies, the company has been successful with its new products, gaining a high year-on-year increase in its export turnover, which rose from US$6 million in 2000 to 9 million in 2004 despite difficulties of the whole fisheries industry. In 2005, the company earned US$12 million in export turnover, becoming an enterprise with high export value. As a result, the company’s benefit increased from VND 800 million in 2000 to VND 2.23 billion in 2004. The company generated jobs for over 600 local people, 100 of whom are children of difficult households.
Since its establishment, the company has always striven to provide material and spiritual support for its workers. As a result, many workers said they have considered the company their second home. For director Anh, she said she always tried to create a favourable working environment for workers so as to encourage their responsibility and creativity to reduce production costs.
In recognition of its achievements and contributions, the company was presented an order for the fishing industry cause. In early 2005, it was presented with the Labour Order, third class. Anh alone has an honour to receive a certificate of merit from the Prime Minister for her company’s good business result.
Huong Ngoc
Vietnamese
