Vietnamese expatriates from Germany return to Vietnam to become ‘farmers’.

Recalling the time in 2000 when he decided to move his entire family back to Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu said that at that time, his work and life in Germany were quite favorable, and his wife and children were all living there. Therefore, when he decided to return to Vietnam, friends and many others thought he was going against the wishes of many, but his love for his homeland and the kind, honest Vietnamese people always compelled him to return.

Furthermore, his wife, Anke Friedel Nguyen, has a deep love for Vietnam. Since her time as a student living in Germany, she chose to major in Vietnamese studies. After starting work, she also participated in many programs and projects supported by the German government for Vietnam. Her love for Vietnam is deeply ingrained in her, and she always wanted the whole family to return to Vietnam so that her children could experience the cultural traditions of her husband’s country.

After returning to Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu stated that he felt no regret or remorse, and considered it a wise decision. As his wife had said, if it hadn’t been for that time, he would never have returned to Vietnam and would never have had the experiences he has today.

Speaking about his reasons for choosing agriculture as his “startup” field upon returning to his hometown, specifically sturgeon farming – a very new field with no precedent in Vietnam – Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu said that one of the reasons for choosing agriculture is that it has great potential, but it has not yet been fully exploited for development.

By investing in agriculture, he hopes to bring clean, high-quality agricultural products to Vietnam, giving international tourists more choices for their menus. Simultaneously, he chose to raise sturgeon in Vietnam because Germany is a highly developed country in this industry, but it is virtually non-existent in Vietnam. However, with his keen insight, he saw enormous growth opportunities in this sector within the Vietnamese market.

Specifically, Mr. Cu argued that Vietnam is a country with a fairly good economic development rate, highly regarded by the region and the world, with improved living standards for its people, and strong integration into the global economy and culture. Therefore, Vietnamese people are also willing to enjoy new foods in their daily menus.

Besides the advantages, in the early days of introducing sturgeon and salmon to Vietnam, Mr. Cu also faced many difficulties. As the first person to build this model, this type of farming was quite new, and the investment environment in Vietnam at that time was not really favorable. The “learning fee” for startup businesses like Mr. Cu’s was quite high. However, after nearly 20 years of doing business in Vietnam, Mr. Cu believes that the investment environment in Vietnam has changed quite positively, becoming more favorable for businesses to operate.

Great opportunity for Vietnamese sturgeon

With determination and love for his homeland, he made great efforts, researching the living conditions of sturgeon and salmon, and boldly invested in Vietnam. To date, Mr. Cu has been very successful with his sturgeon farming model in Vietnam, with three sturgeon farms in Tam Dao (Vinh Phuc), Sapa (Lang Son), and Da Bac (Hoa Binh), all of which have cool climates favorable for the development of cold-water fish farming.

Besides supplying sturgeon to the market through the Thac Bac restaurant chain in several locations such as Lang Son and Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu also provides sturgeon fingerlings to sturgeon farms in Vietnam. Thanks to this, sturgeon farming in Vietnam has begun to develop strongly, attracting attention from both the domestic market and the international community.

According to representatives of the Vietnam Coldwater Fish Development Association, compared to imported sturgeon, domestically farmed sturgeon is not more expensive but is of much higher quality. As a result, many countries around the world have expressed interest in cooperating with Vietnam in developing sturgeon farming.

Specifically, in mid-March 2018, a delegation of experts and businesses in the agricultural sector from the Federal Republic of Germany visited Vietnam to explore opportunities for cooperation in sturgeon farming. During this visit, Martin Oberle – from the Fisheries Institute of the Bavarian State Agricultural Research Center – commented on sturgeon farming in Vietnam, stating that Vietnam has great potential for developing and selling sturgeon, and that the quality of Vietnamese sturgeon is highly regarded, comparable to that of sturgeon farmed in European countries. This provides a strong foundation for Germany to cooperate with Vietnam in developing sturgeon farming.

Earlier, in February 2018, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources of Uzbekistan, Mr. Mirzaev Zoiyr, along with a delegation from Uzbekistan, spent a full day visiting Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu’s farm in Da Bac (Hoa Binh province) to personally witness the sturgeon farming model of the Vietnamese expatriate from Germany. There, a memorandum of cooperation on fish farming between the two countries was signed, opening up new opportunities for collaboration in this promising agricultural sector.