Meet Tran Dang Dat, co-founder of Dat Butter Company Limited (Dat Foods; factory in Cu Chi district, Ho Chi Minh City) when he directly introduces and invites guests to try the product at the opening event of the partner organic food store on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh street, Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City but did not have time to chat much because he had to focus on his expertise. Before that, we were introduced to Dat and his “strange” project by a startup expert.
“It’s a strange project. Just starting a business wants to be a business that has a social impact. Usually, businesses that have been in business for a long time and have enough money to think about projects that have a positive impact on society. If you’re just starting a business, you should worry about your business’ survival first” – this expert said jokingly.
Tran Dang Dat harvests peanuts for Dat Foods. Photo: AN NA
Dat explained that his company wants to re-establish a fairer food supply chain and a more friendly business model. Before starting his business, Dat had 7 years of experience working for a large industrial food corporation in Vietnam. He understands the downside of industrial food: food produced in large quantities but unhealthy, using many chemical additives, only meeting people’s need for food. In addition, the income gap between managers and workers is so large that he no longer sees this as a suitable working environment. Dat went to study English, thereby meeting like-minded friends and co-founded Dat Foods in 2017, after Dat officially quit his job.
Dat Foods started with peanuts and peanut butter – a rather strange product to most Vietnamese people. The fate came from a member of the founding team, a Vietnamese with American nationality, who was used to using peanut butter but when returning to Vietnam, he had to use imported products. Meanwhile, imported products are kept for a long time so they are not delicious. Foreign visitors to Vietnam also want to experience fresh local products, but the market does not have them. “We conducted a market survey and, indeed, Vietnam does not have peanut butter, especially products without additives or preservatives. We determined that this is a niche market and startups have opportunities because of the small market, the “big guys” didn’t care” – Dat recalled.
The next advantage is that the remaining members of the group have land for a clean vegetable growing project but it is not successful, so they change to growing peanuts without chemical fertilizers, without herbicides, and pesticides. The group persuaded farmers to participate in clean peanut-growing material areas. Peanut trees are easy to grow, help improve soil, and the tree trunk is also very good food for cows, so people agree. With clean ingredients and Dat’s food processing expertise, the whole team began researching products based on the principle of no additives and no preservatives.
Because the main product is avocado – a dish of foreigners – Western visitors account for 70%, currently this ratio has decreased but is still at 50-50. “More and more Vietnamese people eat according to foreign tastes; in addition, the eating trend of increasing plant-based products and nuts also makes Dat Foods’ products grow well and become familiar to Vietnamese people” – said representative Dat Butter.
In June 2018, the company’s products were put into business at Big C. This is a recognition for the quality of Dat Foods’ products, helping the brand spread and appear on supermarket shelves one after, high-end food stores and online channels. In addition, Dat Foods can also export products in the form of raw materials to Australia, and export products under the Dat Foods brand to Canada, Japan, and Singapore.
At the end of 2021, two smooth peanut butter and granular peanut butter products of Dat Foods were certified by the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City with 4 stars OCOP (One Commune One Product Program) in the first batch. Currently, the company is continuing to prepare OCOP documents for 3 cooking oil group products (peanuts, yellow sesame, black sesame) for the next assessment.
After many years of pursuing the clean food path, it is expected that in July 2023, Dat Foods will have products that meet international organic certification (US, European and Japanese standards). “Dat Foods will start evaluating certification from the factory, raw materials are taken from growing areas that already have organic certification, then the business will continue to expand the evaluation to growing areas built by the business” – Tran Dang Dat said.
