The bartender’s iced cocoa is one of the favorite drinks at Trong Duc Cocoa. Photo: T.Moc Each product has its own unique recipe. The interesting thing is that at the places selling these products, diners can also experience the actual experience when visiting and introducing the plants and product properties that they have used before. * Enjoy specialties at the garden The stop of Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd (Dinh Quan) on the way to Suoi Mo Tourist Area (KDL) Suoi Mo (Tan Phu District) is about 7km from National Highway 20, where most of the restaurants stop. Tourist bus route at Suoi Mo KDL. The attraction of the stop is not only the purchase of cocoa products at the production site, but also the experience and discovery of the on-site cocoa garden with its characteristics, growth process, and production. cocoa fruit production. Efficiency from connecting products through travel From the fact of consuming nutritious and specialty drinks, it can be seen that, at present, tourism is one of the most effective channels to promote products for farmers. Therefore, in order to ensure the output of the product, in addition to the quality, the subjects and manufacturers must pay attention to the images, designs, and specific information on each product. Mr. Nguyen Ba Oanh, manager of Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd. said that at present, the stopover has about 20 drinks made from cocoa. Recently, some new dishes have been researched and released to the market by the company, which are highly appreciated by diners after using such as tropical cocoa, iced cocoa, cocoa smoothie… These are water dishes. shop’s premium drink. In particular, many diners are quite impressed with the cocoa smoothie made from the flesh of the cocoa fruit, this smoothie has a sour taste and a lot of nutrition. Currently, Trong Duc Cocoa is continuing to research a number of new dishes made from cocoa fruit waste during cocoa processing at the factory of Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd. In order to have these intensively processed products, the company must invite scientific researchers specializing in food to learn and process according to the recipe, ensuring the preservation of nutrients while still being safe for health. consumer health. Not only enjoying the drinks made from cocoa, if you have the opportunity to visit Tan Trieu pomelo village (Tan Binh commune, Vinh Cuu district), diners can also enjoy other interesting drinks. , is made from the main ingredient is grapefruit. As a famous restaurant and often very crowded on weekends, Tan Trieu pomelo village tourist attraction attracts visitors with pomelo village specialties such as pomelo salad, deep-fried pomelo peel… In addition to food and drinks at Tan pomelo village. The current dynasty is quite rich by dishes made from pomelos grown right on Tan Trieu land such as: pomelo smoothies, grapefruit juice, pomelo tea and especially recently, pomelo village also has more dishes that are very popular. Children’s favorite is grapefruit milk tea. Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Lan (District 12, Ho Chi Minh City), a regular customer of grapefruit village, said that every time her family comes here, her family often orders dishes made from grapefruit, in which a drink is indispensable. like grapefruit juice or smoothies. However, the last time she visited, her daughter discovered that the menu had grapefruit milk tea, so she tried it and was quite interested in this strange but familiar taste. Ms. Lan said that the dishes of pomelo village are made from fresh ingredients. In which, there are drinks with their own flavor, different from smoothie shops in other places. Ms. Lan shared: “The pomelo village has never disappointed my family for many years. Whenever I have guests from afar, I often choose the pomelo village to bring people to because it is both delicious and comfortable to visit the garden and take souvenir photos.” * Drinking water from dragon fruit Dong Nai currently has over 1.1 thousand hectares of red flesh dragon fruit. Red flesh dragon fruit used to be the top specialty fruit in terms of income because there were 15-20 harvests a year. At the time of price, dragon fruit sold at the garden can be up to 50-60 thousand VND/kg. According to many documents, red flesh dragon fruit has high quality and economic value, the amount of water in dragon fruit accounts for 90% with vitamins and minerals beneficial to health. Dragon fruit mainly exports fresh fruit, so those that do not meet export standards are often sold in the domestic market at a cheap price. There are times, when dragon fruit hits the market, farmers are struggling when the fruit is ripe but cannot be sold. Product introduction booth of Anna Dragon Fruit Wine Facility (Unification District) Understanding the consumption demand as well as the nutritional value of dragon fruit, a number of businesses and individuals in the province have researched and processed drinks from dragon fruit. Up to now, Dong Nai province has begun to produce products from dragon fruit such as wine, syrup, dried dragon fruit… creating a stable output of fresh fruit. In which, the enterprise that is currently developing a product line of red dragon fruit syrup and smoothie – Long Kim Co., Ltd (Long Tan commune, Nhon Trach district). In order to have enough raw materials to process products to supply the market, in addition to the area of ​​dragon fruit in the province, the company has to buy raw materials for processing from many other provinces and cities for production. In order to have a stable source of raw materials, over the past time, this enterprise has built fruit consumption chains for farmers. Also from the fact of market supply, in 2018 Anna Dragon Fruit Wine Facility (Thong Nhat District) cooperated to purchase a number of non-exported dragon fruits to produce fermented red flesh dragon fruit juice. . When the product has been tested, ensuring safety criteria, Anna Dragon Fruit Wine Factory has successfully registered the exclusive Anna brand of fermented dragon fruit juice in Dong Nai. By 2019, Anna’s dragon fruit wine products participated in the One Commune One Product (OCOP) program and was recognized as having a 3-star standard. Ms. Le Kim Luan, owner of the Anna Dragon Fruit Wine Facility, said that to get the dragon fruit wine like today, it took her a lot of time to experiment with batches of wine. Every time she has a new batch, she invites customers to taste it to record their opinions and gradually perfect the recipe, ensuring both the taste and quality of the product. With the traditional manual production method, completely natural fermentation, the Anna dragon fruit wine has kept the taste and quality of this nutritious fruit. Sharing production experience, Ms. Kim Luan said that brewing this wine requires a lot of work. In particular, the stage of choosing raw materials will decide the product after making the right taste and quality. If the dragon fruit has a sour taste, the sweetness is not uniform, the processing process requires more meticulousness. Dragon fruit is fermented in large earthenware jars and usually takes 6 months to produce a good batch of wine.

Every ingredient from the cocoa fruit is turned into a processing ingredient. Photo: B.Nguyen In Dong Nai, many production models applying biotechnology to recycle waste into input materials for other production processes, minimizing the amount of waste discharged into the environment are gradually being replicated. * Green production At the forefront of the movement to turn harmful wastes in agricultural production into raw materials for processing into other high-value economic products are enterprises with large investment capital. Viet Farm Trading Co., Ltd chose to invest in Xuan Truong commune, Xuan Loc district because this is a thriving locality in livestock. Starting a business, the business mainly manufactures livestock equipment and designs and constructs livestock barn systems. The barn system designed by the company is fully automatic from the feeding system to collecting chicken manure, cooling system… In which, the enterprise is very interested in waste treatment so that it can earn money. money instead of having to spend a lot of money to treat this waste source. Mr. Tran Quang Tinh, Director of Viet Farm Trading Co., Ltd shared: “The enterprise has invested in an organic fertilizer factory with a capacity of 200 tons/day and signed contracts for waste treatment for a number of corporations. large foreign-invested livestock groups in Dong Nai. In particular, livestock waste is used as a raw material for the production of organic fertilizers, bringing high economic value. Production of organic fertilizers from livestock waste of Viet Farm Trading Company Limited (Xuan Loc District) The story of sustainable agricultural production in a closed chain that takes advantage of all agricultural wastes and by-products, without creating environmental pollution is being replicated in farmers’ production. In the past time, H. Vinh Cuu is promoting a program to mobilize and support farmers to apply probiotics as pesticides, organic fertilizers from domestic waste and waste in agricultural production with the goal of achieving the goal. reduce production costs, increase added value for key agricultural products, local strengths. Here, agricultural waste becomes a resource, a natural organic substance that can help plants grow. Ms. Bui Thi Thuy, a farmer in Vinh An Town (Vinh Cuu District), said that after participating in a number of local training courses on organic farming, she applied biotechnology. Make your own organic fertilizers and use probiotics to create biological products that kill insects. She has improved the productive land more and more fertile thanks to this method. “The natural production method I am doing makes full use of all agricultural waste such as manure and organic waste to make fertilizer for plants, so the cost is very low. I am trying to perfect the chain of cultivation and processing according to a closed process, using fruit trees grown in my home garden as raw materials to make handmade products that are both unique and environmentally friendly,” said Ms. Thuy. * Zero-waste processing Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd (Dinh Quan) has cooperated with a group of Assoc., PhD students of the International University of Ho Chi Minh City to carry out research projects on processing foods and drinks of economic value. benefits from cocoa fruit waste products. New product lines under investment include: production of cookies and non-fried instant noodles supplemented with cocoa pod powder; production process of vegetarian sausage and pectin from cocoa powder; the production process of nutritious drink from cocoa fruit flesh… The highlight of these products is the use of raw materials such as waste from the skin, cocoa fruit flesh to process valuable foods. nutritional and economic. The above cooperation program is part of the common goal of the enterprise, which is to focus on investing in deep processing, constantly diversifying products and foods processed from cocoa fruit, especially from cocoa fruit waste to create profits. competitive advantage for products not only in the domestic market but also in export. Mr. Dang Truong Khanh, Director of Trong Duc Cocoa Co., Ltd. shared that the enterprise would like scientists to accompany in researching new products from cocoa fruit. In particular, high-value foods are processed from materials that are waste products in the production process, contributing to adding added value to cocoa trees. The most unique product line to mention is the specialty of cocoa wine that is brewed from the flesh of the previous cocoa fruit, which is discarded during the production process. With the same opinion, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Hung, representing a group of scientists from the International University of Ho Chi Minh City, said, diversifying many products from cocoa skin and flesh, which are waste products in the process. production process brings higher economic value. In particular, this is a product line that is beneficial to human health because it has higher antioxidants, meeting the demand for healthy food of today’s consumers. Research on these products is now almost completed and can be put into production immediately. However, the research team will continue to recalculate the production process and equipment. Hopefully, the cooperation of scientists and businesses will connect and bring more processed products to the market.