Labour Heroine Thai Huong, Founder and Chairwoman of the TH Group Strategy Council. (Photo: TH Group)
On the mountain tops and under the forest canopy of the westernmost border part of Nghe An (Na Ngoi and Muong Long communes, Ky Son district), there are vast areas for preserving and breeding rare medicinal herbs such as lan thach hoc tia (Dendrobium officinale Kimura et Migo) and Panax notoginseng. Even, some species that were once in danger of disappearing, such as that diep nhat chi hoa (Paris polyphylla) and Puxailaileng ginseng are also being strongly revived.
Having a "herbal paradise" in the human world takes a lot of efforts and sweat from TH people. They have worked hard, together with local people, to find ways to 'awaken' the treasure that had fallen asleep under the forest canopy. And the pioneering footprint in the herb 'revolution' is that of Labour Heroine Thai Huong – Founder and Chairwoman of the TH Group Strategy Council.
Huong had an interview with VietnamPlus e-newspaper reporters on how to make Mother Nature bring health to the people of Vietnam.
Opportunity comes from concern about Vietnamese people's health
Reporter: Dear Labour Hero Thai Huong, despite being very successful with Bac A Bank, TH True MILK and TH School System, why did you choose a difficult path when "starting up" with herbs?
Labour Heroine Thai Huong: The reason why I make clean fresh milk surely everyone knows: I watched TV and saw that milk was contaminated with Melamine, affecting human health. This motivated me to make clean milk on the Vietnamese land.
Vietnam is very beautiful, with "golden forest, silver sea, and fertile land" that we have not fully utilised. In addition, there is a saying that "disease comes from the mouth", food safety problems are spreading widely with information seen in every newspaper. Since then, a question that has always been on my mind is: How to fully tap what nature offers to bring a better life. And now we have hundreds of types of fresh and clean dairy products, all-natural healthy drinks, and herbal teas for community health.
Another thing that few people know is that I really love nature and work related to fields. Luckily, I was born and grew up in a rural area, this has nurtured my soul with dreams, ambitions and a burning desire to do how to make people in my hometown, which represents Vietnamese rural areas in both mountainous and lowland regions, to have a less difficult life.
Regarding my fate with herbs, you see, wherever I sit and work, there are many books. Books about medicinal herbs are classified as precious books, especially when reading books such as "Hai Thuong Y Tong Tam Linh" by Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac, and "Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine" by Andrew Chevallier, although I don't understand everything, I find that plants are very precious, vegetables can be turned into herbs, herbs can be used as vegetables. And I have summed it up in one sentence: “Cherish Mother Nature, she will give abundant returns”.
Reporter: There is a sad reality that Vietnamese herbs once faced destructive exploitation for sale. What do you think about this pain?
Labour Heroine Thai Huong: Vietnam is a tropical country with diverse flora and fauna resources, and ranked 16th out of the 25 countries with the most biodiversity in the world. Many endemic medicinal species have high use and economic value associated with Vietnamese geographical indications [Ngoc Linh ginseng, Gac (Momordica cochinchinensis), and Turmeric].
Vietnam used to be an exporter of medicinal herbs in the past and is a country with a long history of traditional medicine. People have tradition of and experience in using medicinal plants.
However, for a long time, precious medicinal plants were exploited in an "exterminate" manner to sell to foreign countries. Foreign traders bought Vietnamese raw medicinal herbs at cheap prices. They extracted and sold essence at high prices, and medicinal waste matters were sold back to Vietnam. Thus, Vietnam imported "junk medicinal herbs" that had had all their active ingredients extracted; and had to use poor quality medicinal herbs, and was unable to benefit from their land, and depleted their own rich resources by itself.
I once said that Vietnamese people were living on a priceless treasure of medicinal herbs but did not know how to exploit and preserve them, and were suffering serious consequences.
From that pain, I and groups of experts often discussed this matter and determined to build a herbal path for Vietnam by creating national products from herbs that meet international standards.
Strategic vision on economy under forest canopy
Reporter: Preserving, growing and processing medicinal herbs in Vietnam has been chosen by many businesses as a direction for development. So, what is the difference between TH Group and other enterprises?
Labour Heroine Thai Huong: I actually haven't had the opportunity to learn about other businesses. As for TH, I have two very clear directions:
The first is natural picking in an organic manner.
The second is to plant and restore native herbs under the forest canopy in an organic way. Specifically:
For special-use forests: hand over to local people for harvesting natural herbs, TH purchases, processes, builds brand, and brings products to market.
For protective forests, forest environment rents: allow locals to collect natural herbs and assign businesses to grow new herbal plants to fill spaces.
For production forests, land leased from the State (taken from agricultural and forestry farms with ineffective land management, and handed over to localities to give to enterprises): Grow new herbal plants using high technology, and in a multi-layer direction, including forestry trees, perennial wood trees, fruit trees with forestry nature, and herbs under the forest canopy.
After that, there is a closed process, from preliminary processing to processing and production of cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical products with high technology.
Reporter: We once came to Muong Long (Ky Son) and were truly surprised at the herbal paradise that TH Group had built over the years. Not only that, TH has also cooperated with indigenous people to tap nature in combination with conservation and multiplication of endemic herbs, and produced tea bag products that are popular with consumers. Are you satisfied with what you have done?
Labour Heroine Thai Huong: We are not satisfied yet. In Muong Long, this is just the first step, but to get what we have today, you can see that we have had to experiment for the past 5-7 years. Now it is necessary to replicate at least 2,000 hectares on Puxailaileng mountain. A TH processing factory has already existed. Next we make the brand and bring it to the market. A set of five TH true HERBAL tea bag products, introduced to the market in September 2022, is the first step as you can see.
The project allowing local people to collect natural hebds has proved effective. The picking of natural herbs from special-use forests has brought something joyous. In the past few years, many indigenous people have not deforested and you can see in the documentary the image of people carrying baskets behind their backs and telling journalists: "We don't deforest anymore".
They have gone deep into the forests, guarded the forests, and gathered herbs to supply to TH Group. When accompanying mountainous people, especially when looking into their eyes, I see happiness and peace as life gradually improves.
Reporter: Recently, economic development under forest canopy is receiving attention from the State and many localities, but there are still no specific projects or policies. With many years of experience, where do you think we should start from?
- Labour Heroine Thai Huong: Currently, our forests have three types: production forests, protective forests and special-use forests. There are many areas that used to be forests, but people cut them down and floods swept them away, so there are no forests anymore.
Therefore, I think the first thing is to survey and map the current state of forests. Once we have the map, we will have appropriate policies for each type of forest. For example, for the lost forest area, how should we respond to?
It is also necessary to have businesses with the heart and vision to use forest resources and bring local farmers into the economic production chain under the forest canopy, helping them get rich right in their own homeland.
Currently, agricultural and economic development under the forest canopy is being supported by the Government and authorities of provinces and districts. Therefore, businesses should join hands in this journey because “A bird does not make spring”.
Only when many people and businesses love the soil and forests like TH does will Vietnam “bloom”.
Reporter: Thank you very much./.
Related stories:
[TH true Herbal: key to unlock Muong Long herbal treasure]
[Following Nghe An border residents into forests to pick up “heaven’s gifts”]
[TH Group brings best, cleanest herbal tea to consumers]
[Medicinal herbs – cash cow for central border region]
