For 50 years, it has been said that citizens of Sao Vang town are connected closely with sugarcane, as a traditional trade which has existed for a long period. Furthermore, when mentioning Sao Vang, they also talk about the Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited, and about the director, who has spent more than 30 years accompanying sugarcane “saving every best thing from the land to refine sugar”. That is Mr Trinh Ngoc Long - Director of Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited.
For over 30 years, this Thanh Hoa man has tied and shared his life with sugarcane. And after 18 years of being director of Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited (formerly Sao Vang plantation), he has never never forgotten his love for sugarcane. His love has gradually become bigger and given him power to pass through every difficulty aiming to help Lam Son - Sao Vang develop sustainably. He has once said: “Growing sugarcane is not just an occupation, but it is my profession. With over 30 years of being together, sugarcane and I cannot be far away from each other even more than half my life and for many years to go.”
Sao Vang plantation became the pioneer of the agriculture sector in Thanh Hoa. This success in reclaiming, transforming the fallow hill into the fertile sugarcane growing area has been honoured as “a launch base sugarcane” of the country. This production model on the hill here has become the subject of the State science research and it is applied widely in many provinces, especially in Lam Son hill. Right from the period of budget subsidies, the flourish green sugarcane hill had changed the fallow hill to the “sweeten land” of Thanh Hoa province.
In 2006, from the merger between the Sao Vang plantation and the Lam Son Sugar and Sugarcane Joint Stock Company, the Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited was established. This is an important turning point for the transformation and rise of a new phase. As the result of focusing on human resource development, investment and application of technology, land planning, mechanisation in production, sugarcane productivity continuously increases. Together with strongly applying intensive cultivation, investing in the drip irrigated sugarcane model, adopting new breed, in 2009, the company reached an average sugarcane yield of 78 tonnes per ha and became on the units which had the highest sugarcane yield in the country. In the sugarcane crop of 2010 - 2011 (as of the end of March 2011), the sugarcane productivity reached 57,000 tonnes, 3,000 tonnes higher than the previous season. Value of sugarcane products reached about VND 60 billion.
In the sugarcane crop of 2011-2012, the company is expected to grow 880 ha of sugarcanes, of which 20 ha of sugarcane seedlings, striving to reach output of 63,000 tonnes. Determined to take sugarcane as major crop, “using sugarcane as a launch base”, currently Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited has provided sugarcane seedlings for Lam Son area, for the province and neighbouring provinces as well.
Not only well - known for its sugarcanes, Lam Son - Sao Vang is also considered when people of Tho Xuan need transportation or construction materials. Director Trinh Ngoc Long said: “In order to survive and thrive in the market mechanism, we have to develop as a multi-professional company. Besides sugarcanes, we are manufacturing also rubber, bricks and offering transport service… For the first 3 months of 2012, tunnel brick factory of the company has produced 5 million bricks which are worth VND5 billion, created 180 jobs. Transportation team of the company comprises 30 vehicles that not only transport sugarcanes, bricks, rubber, but also offer services that bring profits of hundreds of million VND each year”.
Currently, Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited has 980 staffs, workers with average income of VND3 million a month. Not only does the company care for livings of employees, each year it also provides nearly VND100 million to participate in charitable activities, social security activities such as supporting funds of local school promotion, and funds for the poor.
Coming to Sao Vang today, we can find ourselves in the middle of vast sugarcanes fields with spacious, multi-storey houses and solid transportation system. Lam Son - Sao Vang Company Limited has brought to local people happiness and enthusiasm in the profession of saving every best thing from land to refine sugar. And this also contributes to the construction and development of Thanh Hoa province, helping it become more and more beautiful and stronger.
Phan Quang
Vietnamese
