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| Watchful: Lê Nguyện (left) supervises the process of making dragonfruit wine at her co-operative in Bình Thuận Province. She wants to expand the co-operative to making dragonfruit juice as well, but like many other SMEs, lacks funds. Photo Courtesy of Lê Nguyện |
Empowering female entrepreneurs is a no-brainer in the most important areas – employment generation and sustainable development; the evidence is that they are more responsible stewards, writes Thu Vân.
The sad, shocking sight of large amounts of dragonfruit being fed to cattle or left to rot on roadsides in many places smote her heart.
Lê Nguyện was also haunted by the fate of farmers in the southern province of Bình Thuận, a principal producer of dragon fruit in Việt Nam, as prices fell and they suffered huge losses in 2014 and 2015.
She thought about ways to redeem the situation and ensure it would not be repeated. She came up with the idea of establishing a co-operative to buy dragonfruit at a stable and reasonable price from local farmers, and to make wine with it as an added value product. Tiếp tục đọc “When women mean business, society thrives”


