Mr. Le Duy Toan, General Director of Duy Anh Food Import-Export Company (Duy Anh Foods)
After graduating from university in the US, Le Duy Toan gave up the opportunity to work at large corporations to return to Vietnam to start a business. The 35-year-old man has turned his dream of bringing Vietnamese products to 48 countries around the globe into reality.
Mr. Le Duy Toan, General Director of Duy Anh Food Import-Export Company (Duy Anh Foods), said that from childhood to adolescence, he witnessed his parents, relatives and inhabitants in a famous traditional craft village - Phu Hoa Dong rice paper in Ho Chi Minh City’s Cu Chi outlying district where he was born stayed up late and woke up early, exposing themselves to the sun and rain making rice paper and vermicelli without much profit. In 2006, he went to the US to study Business Administration at California State University, starting his dream journey of conquering the world's top prestigious universities.
While studying in the US, he once went to a local supermarket and found many bags of rice paper on the shelves; however, the product packaging was labeled ‘Product of Thailand'. In comparison with rice paper products in his hometown in Cu Chi District, he felt made-in-Thailand rice paper products are not much different, and even the quality of products from home is slightly better. This stirred him up a lot of anxiety as he was wondering why the same type of product is but products in the homeland are struggling to survive even in the domestic market not to mention the US market.
From that reality, he nurtured the idea of bringing Vietnamese products with Vietnamese brands and cultural identities on American supermarket counters and shelves, and expanding in the global market, said Le Duy Toan.
After finishing 4 years of studying abroad in the US, Toan gave up his dream of settling down in the alien country and returned to Vietnam to start a business making traditional rice paper and vermicelli. However, he was facing various problems such as tasteless products, poor packaging of the products and uncompetitive prices. The first batch of rice paper had to be thrown away because of not delicious taste. He had a headache over low productivity when producing by hand, low aesthetics and product quality, and the uncompetitive price compared to similar products.
Though Duy Anh Foods learned from experience and produced perfect products many times, the company's products failed to win the market when they were displayed for sale to both domestic and foreign markets.
Mr. Le Duy Toan remembered in the early days his family members and he introduced the products in grocery stores and supermarkets. Due to low sales and revenue, the goods were returned to the company within a short time. Moreover, the products were sent to the company’s partners in Japan and the US but the partners all refused.
But he never gave up, continued to follow his dream by improving and perfecting the production process, product quality, and innovative packaging designs. Fortunately, an opportunity came knocking on the door when Ho Chi Minh City had a policy of connecting tourism with visits to craft villages to experience how to make traditional products. A Japanese businessman while paying visits to the traditional craft village in Cu Chi District was very impressed when trying Duy Anh Foods' products who later mentioned the supply of rice paper to the Japanese market.
From the Japanese businessman's goodwill to cooperate, Duy Anh Foods gradually worked to standardize production according to Japanese market standards. After many months, the first container of rice paper was exported to Japan. Mr. Le Duy Toan recalled that he couldn't hold back his tears of joy looking at the stacks of rice paper packed into boxes to be shipped to Japan. His startup journey became smoother and less arduous.
In 2017, many Vietnamese farmers encountered difficulties because domestic agricultural products had a good harvest but could not be exported in time, and the prices of many agricultural products such as dragon fruit, and watermelon fell dramatically. Mr. Le Duy Toan was concerned about why a country with abundant agricultural products like Vietnam always has to suffer the situation that bumper crop pushes the prices of agricultural products low and why agricultural products are not put into deep processing to increase their value on the market. From this thought, Duy Toan Foods company research team began to study and produce a product branded ‘watermelon rice vermicelli’.
Surprisingly, as soon as the product was first introduced, it immediately received enthusiastic purchases not only from domestic consumers but also from consumers in countries around the world. In May 2022, Duy Anh Foods surpassed thousands of businesses around the world to reach the top 14 businesses winning the award ‘Products showing future food trends’ at Thaifex-Anuga Asia 2022 in Thailand. More specifically, out of over 1,300 local and international exhibitors, Duy Anh Foods was the only Vietnamese unit to be awarded an innovation award with the watermelon rice vermicelli.
Promoting the effectiveness of rice paper and watermelon vermicelli products, Duy Anh Foods continued to research and launched cereal vermicelli products with pure Vietnamese ingredients such as rice creatively combined with fruit into the market. Right after being introduced to the Paris market (France) through the Sial Paris Fair 2022 taking place in October 2022, the Vietnamese product with the brand ‘Mr. Rice cereal Vermicelli’ brought the company the prestigious awards ‘Innovative products’ and ‘Products of future trends’.
