Young man Dinh Van Khoa, residing in Nam Yen Village, Hoa Bac Commune had to stop his academic dream early after graduating from junior high school and experience a host of hard jobs to make a living due to his difficult family circumstances. In 2019 summer, Khoa started his brainchild business with an eco-tourism model having the combination of a cafe and an orchard because his dream of developing homeland tourism has always been burned in his heart.

The process of planting and caring for guava trees was learned by himself via the internet. Photo: Mai Hien

In 2017, Khoa started working as a driver for a travel company in Da Nang and has been bonded with this job till now. However, his desire of developing homeland tourism always urges the young man to do something. In the summer of 2019, Hence Khoa persuaded his parents to demolish the 100m2-wide cow shed and a 2,000m²-wide grass garden to kick off his dream.

In the first phase, he renovated the grass garden into an orchard and experimented with about 100 grafted guava pear trees, 50 coconut trees, more than 20 jackfruit trees and some clean vegetables such as malabar spinach, katuk, bitter melon, okra and some kinds of herbs.

With the aim to increase crop productivity, Khoa spent a lot of time searching for scientific information on varieties, care and pests’ prevention. Thereby, the young man has gradually absorbed how to grow organically to limit pests and ensure productivity.

In addition, Khoa also tinkered with building an automatic irrigation system.
Till date, 80% of grafted guava pear trees are growing well and generating regularly, 20% of them cannot be kept because of storms.

In November 2020, Khoa used 100m² vacant land to build a coffee shop named Lua (rice) that was put into operation in March 2021 as almost all the building process had to be done by himself. Lua Coffee is simply built of wood to maximize the natural wind and also for visitors to freely admire the scenery of the mountains and hills of the Hoa Bac Village countryside.

Moreover, Khoa also drafted an attractive menu with a variety of drinks and rustic dishes such as Quang noodles, grilled chicken with some of the ingredients are used from fruits and vegetables in his garden in order to fulfill customer's experience.

As shared by Khoa, the initial capital he spent to build Lua coffee shop was about VND 200 million of about 50% comes from his accumulated money after many years of working, the remaining 50% was supported by the Youth Union of Hoa Bac commune to borrow loans with low-interest rates. Furthermore, the Youth Union also gave him a hand and encouragement in the process of building Lua as well as fruit orchards.

As luck would have it, Khoa's journey to realize his dream of promoting local tourism is quite favourable with Lua coffee’s first month's revenue has reached more than VND 20 million. Not only attracting local people but also a large number of visitors from the Da Nang downtown. During months of temporarily closing due to the pandemic, Khoa spent time continuing to improve the shop to offer customers better experiences.

Currently, COVID-19 situation in Da Nang is under control, which is also Khoa’s motivation to constantly develop Lua coffee and expand sightseeing activities combined with fruit garden experiences. At the same time, the young man also aims at turning this place into a space to connect, display and sell clean agricultural products of his homeland- Hoa Bac Village.

Reporting by KHANH QUYEN- Translating by T.VY