A movement to promote the proactive engagement of women in the study, creative labour and building prosperous and happy families is spreading more and more widely in the local women’s unions in Hoa Binh, attracting a large number of women. Bui Thi Xiem, Director of Thien Loi An medicinal herbs cooperative in Kim Boi commune, Kim Boi district, emerges as one of typical examples in implementing the movement.
Bui Thi Xiem (R), Director of the Thien Loi An medicinal herbs cooperative in Kim Boi commune, Kim Boi district, is a typical example in a movement to promote women’s startups and creative labour.
Xiem decided to establish the cooperative in 2020 to connect production and bring medicinal herbs to the market nationwide. Since its establishment, the cooperative averagely supplies nearly 10,000 medicinal herbs of all kinds to the market a year.
She said her family has been practicing traditional herbal medicine for a long time, regularly purchasing medicinal herbs from local people, so she understands the characteristics of herbal medicines. The formation of the cooperative is expected to create stable jobs for rural labourers and contribute to conserving rare medicinal plants.
So far, the cooperative has offered many products in the market, including Homalomena aromatica jelly, Celastrus approximatus Craib jelly, Solanum procumbens jelly, and Panax Notoginseng jelly. To achieve success, Xiem has gone through many difficulties and challenges, requiring her to be determined, learn, and gain experience to create a unique feature for her products.
The cooperative has cooperated with 16 households to grow medicinal plants with a total area of 5 ha, serving processing and production activities. Many households in Kim Boi commune have had additional income from growing medicinal plants.
The cooperative's annual revenue reaches over 500 million VND (nearly 19,700 USD), creating regular jobs for six workers with a monthly income of 5 - 6 million VND each; and over 40 part-time labourers.
Chairwoman of the women's union of Kim Boi commune Bui Thi Trang said Xiem is an active member in the women's movement, and an exemplary figure in exploring, starting a business, and effectively developing household economics in the locality.
With her idea to process medicinal herbs has initially produced positive results, utilising the available medicinal resources of the locality, while preserving traditional remedies, and creating stable income for her family.
Xiem aims to develop Homalomena aromatica cream product into an OCOP (One Commune, One Product) item in 2024. She also plans to enhance the promotion and introduction of her products through e-commerce channels to access more consumers.
In Lac Thuy district, communes have been succeeded in promoting their One Commune-One Product (OCOP) products while others are still struggling to position their typical farming products in market. Some communes in the district still fail to have their products met OCOP programme’s requirements, while others have seen their certifications expired.
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