Case 

Study: Responsible Business in HOBA Cooperative1

This case is about Hoa Binh Banana Cooperative (HOBA) in Lien Son commune, Luong Son
district, Hoa Binh province. HOBA has been operated as a cooperative only since 2018, and
yet, the cooperative has been recognized as a good model for community agricultural
businesses in north mountainous areas of Vietnam. Mr. Dam, the thirty-year old Founder and
Director, was invited to attend the National Emulation Conference in 2020 which honored
individuals that have outstanding contributions to community development. Besides offering
several good practices, HOBA operation also raises a number of concerns about responsible
business an agriculture cooperative may face.

The development of HOBA

Socio-economic context of Luong Son and Lien Son commune
Lương Sơn is a gateway district of Hoa Binh Province, bordering Hanoi Capital, a buffer
zone between the Capital and the Northwest Viet Nam. Located about 40km from Hanoi to
the West and 30km from Hòa Bình to the East, Lương Sơn covers an area of 364.888 km2.
The district is divided into 11 administrative units, including 10 communes and 1 town. This
geographical location creates advantages of Lương Sơn district to become a hub of
economics, cultural and social exchanges between The Northwestern Mountainous region
and the Red River Delta region, including Hanoi. Luong Son aims to become "A kitchen for
Hanoi”, i.e., providing quality agricultural products for Hanoi. 

Lien Son commune is about 12 km to the south of the center of Luong Son district.
Lien Son has an advantageous location as it borders with some districts of Hanoi and has a
direct access to Ho Chi Minh highway. Lien Son planned to become an industrial area and
industrial production activities have been expanded, including quarrying,
cement manufacturing. This has, however, contaminated water, polluted air and created noise
disturbance. Furthermore, this industrial sector employs lot of workforce and occupies a big
proportion of land. Table 1 summarizes key indicators of the commune.

Table 1: Lien Son’s Socio-economic Indicators

Unit Total
Areas ha 5,862
Number of households household 4,023
Population person 16,805
Ethnicity
- Muong % 78.86
% 18.14
- Kinh
% 3
- Others

1
The case is written for educational purpose. Names of the business and people involved have been changed.
 Income per capita (2020) Million VND 37
Poverty ration % 3.07
Despite challenges, agricultural production in Lien Son has shown positive development.
Currently in the commune has 7 cooperatives and many groups which work effectively. The
commune has 3 out of 5 OCOP2 products of the whole district. These are HOBA banana, My
Tan pomelo, Hung Tien duck egg. Lien Son plans to increase the number of OCOP products
in coming years.

HOBA Cooperative history

History of HOBA Cooperative

Dam was born in 1991 in a family that had both farming and gold-trading businesses. In
2014, after graduating with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Hanoi
University, Dam tried his luck at fruit business. The experience was quite harsh, but he did
find that banana was very potential. Banana is a popular fruit, available all year round, with
high yield, low price, and suitable for the weather conditions and farming practices of the
locality. However, collected bananas from households in the North were unstable in both
quantity and quality.

In 2016, Dam returned home with the idea of developing a banana cultivation process,
following VIETGAP standard. Taking advantage of the available land, with the support of his
family, Dam started his business with 5,000 banana trees on an area of 1.5 hectares in Luong
Son, Hoa Binh. Dam chose a tissue culture method with the outstanding advantages of being
a plant with less pestilence, high yield and quality. After 1 year of trial planting, realizing that
banana trees are easy to grow with short capital recovery time, he decided to mobilize some
households with available land both inside and outside the village to multiply the banana
planting areas to 4.5 hectares.
Through a number of friends at Vietnam National University (VNU) - Hanoi, Dam learned
about Thriive Hanoi program3. Dam, as the owner of an individual business household,
received a loan of 200 million VND from Thriive and committed to repay by vocational
training and giving seedlings to 20 households in difficult circumstances. Initially, Dam gave
bananas to orphanages for 2 years. At the beginning of 2018, Dam started to contact families
with difficult circumstances to give seedlings worth 200 million VND. These families not
only received seedlings but also instructions on how to plant bananas and a commitment to
purchase the outputs from Dam. Taking advice from the Farmers' Association and the
People's committee of Trung Son commune, Dam form HOBA cooperative on August 31,

2
“One Commune One Product” program which ranks agricultural products by their uniqueness, effectiveness,
and quality (including safety standards)
3
Thriive Hanoi Program: The cooperation program between the Center for Economics Research and
Development, University of Economics, VNU and Thriive USA operateing since 2005. Thriive program offers
interest-free loans to small and medium-sized enterprises to purchase machinery, production equipment,
creating strong growth for businesses. The loan is repayable by giving products, services or charity vocational
training to the community.
2018. The core members were those households who got awarded seedlings, and Dam was
the director of the cooperative.

Cooperative arrangement
Membership:
- Initially, when it was first established, members of the Cooperative were families with
difficult circumstances who were given seedlings by Dam. After about one year, when
the first harvest started, 10 households discontinued their membership. The
discontinuities of memberships were not a typical formal termination of contracts.
Instead, the the members gradually excluded themselves from the Cooperative
because they did not have quality bananas to sell. Mr. Dam commended that “they did
not have enough commitment to take care of the banana as required”. Except written
purchasing contracts, most other arrangements between members and the cooperative
are verbal.
- Well-fit members are then gradually selected from households in the area. To join the
Cooperative, members are required to have land and some capital to buy seedlings,
manure, chemical fertilizers and plant protection drugs. In fact, there is very little
capital needed (seedlings are supported by Dam, and whoever raises livestock already
have manure). The most critical conditions appear to be having sufficient land and
commitment to follow plantation procedures as instructed by Dam. By January 2021,
the cooperative has about 26-27 members.
Member roles and responsibility:
- Mr. Dam, the Founder and Director: Dam is in charge of providing seedlings,
technical support, brand promotion and markets. Specifically, Dam supports seedling
to most members. Dam also acts as a technical officer. He regularly visits members'
gardens and directly guides farmers on planting techniques and procedures to
achieve the highest productivity. While other banana producers struggled with the
markets, HOBA - with the advantage of being one of the strongest buyers in the
North of Vietnam - is very confident with the output of the markets. Recognizing
that building a brandname is very important, Dam has completed the procedures and
been granted a trademark registration of HOBA (Vietnam Bananas). Dam also plants
his own bananas in an area of 5.78 ha. He employs 30 local people, mostly from
HOBA’s member families, to work on his banana plantation, seeding, and logistics.
- Members: The members use their land and labor to produce bananas that meet the
design and quality. There is no restrictions on the members’ use of their own labors or
working conditions. The cooperative commits to buy 100% of these products, and this
commitment is written in purchasing contracts between the Cooperative and the
members. HOBA offers their members the better price compared with the private
traders. The stable price ranges from 4000 VND to 6000 VND/kg, and up to 8000
VND/kg on special holidays. In order for the products to meet the desired design and
 quality, the most important thing for members is to use manure and know how to
water effectively. The Cooperative also coordinates the members' production to avoid
over supply because the members’ plantations tend to be conducted in the spring.

Development of Cooperative from 2018 – 2020:

Currently, the cultivated land area of the whole
cooperative is about 30 hectares (of which Dam's
own farm is about 6-7 hectares) with production
outputs in 2019 and 2020 reaching more than 1000
tons per year. In addition, the Cooperative also
purchases bananas from households in many
provinces who follow the same production
requirements and quality standards to process and
provide to the markets. These purchased bananas
were planted in about 100ha and accounted for about
80% of the total products sold to the markets. The Cooperative’s revenue in 2019 and 2020
reached about 17 billion VND per year.
Bananas are cleaned, ripened in a cold room with bio-ethylene gas, labeled, packed, and
delivered to supermarkets in Hanoi such as Vinmart, chains of clean agricultural products
such as Bac Tom, Soi Bien, and industrial zones in the city and the surrounding areas.
Currently, due to the limited cultivated area, the Cooperative’s supply is under demand for
domestic consumption. The Cooperative is also considering exporting the bananas, but that is
the next five years' story.

HOBA responsible business practices

Changes in livelihood of the members: Prior to joining the cooperative, as other farmers in
this area, member households planted rice or beans/ peanuts/ corn which generated 70 - 100
million VND/ha/year. By joining the cooperative and switching to banana plantation, on
average, each member earns 250 – 300 million VND/ha/year, with the income of 10 million
VND/person/month. In general, the members enjoyed about three times increase in revenue,
started having savings and reinvestment, and planned to expand their operation in the future.
The cooperative does not set any restriction on their use of family members in banana
plantation and harvest.

Job opportunities: Besides, HOBA cooperative has created employment opportunities for the
local people in Lien Son and other neighboring communes. Currently, there are 30 local
people working for the cooperative. They get stable salary from 5 to 6 million
VND/person/month which is higher than farming. There are no documents on other benefits
or requirements on working conditions. The workers are satisfied with the non-toxic working
environment and their caring and young director. “They can bring what they learn here to
their own farms” (Dam believed)

Technical support from the founder: As membership to the cooperative, the farmers are
provided with high-quality seedlings at reasonable price or even for free. Mr. Dam built a
nursery with area of 2000 square metters to raise healthy and productive seedlings which are
made available for planting throughout the year4. Besides, Mr. Dam regularly visits and gives
advises to members during the plantation times.

Environment protection: In the process of banana

plantation, the members are provided with technical
knowledge and on-the-job mentoring by Mr. Dam. The
planting procedure from soil preparation, irrigation,
manure application, caring to harvesting is transferred
to HOBA’s members. This procedure has been
accumulated and updated by Mr. Dam himself that
seems to be complex but effective and appropriate with
typical soil and climatic conditions of the Northern
areas. Specifically, in soil preparation, Mr. Dam
reminds the farmers to plow from 2 to 4 times and mix
farmyard manure thoroughly into the soil to get a fine
tilth with good drainge, fertility, and moisture. In
irrigation, while being a water-loving plant, banana
roots are easy to be waterlogged, the farmers are
instructed to apply drip irrigation and economical
mulching with dried leaves to reduce water evaporation and weeds. In fertilization, compared
to non-members who mostly use chemical fertilizers, HOBA farmers use composted manure
from their farmyard and their neiborghs’ that reduces costs of production and ensures safe
cultivation and safe products. The developing bunches are covered with blue plastic sleeves
to prevent direct exposure to sunlight, dust, spray
residue, insects, and birds and also increase
temperature for early maturity. After 2 years
joining HOBA cooperative, the famers have better
farming experience and are very confident in their
technical capacity.

4
The mother plants which are the prerequisites to get high yields are screened and propagated carefully by
HOBA. Compared with the conventional use of suckers, plants from banana tissue culture seedlings applied by
HOBA are healthier, less disease, homogeneity in plant growth, and early yielding. One HOBA banana bunch
weighs about 20kg, and up to 30-40kg in the best conditions that yields 30% higher productivity than the
traditional methods.
 “We are motivated to follow this clean production simply because it raises both
productivity and quality of bananas. It just requires more labor works.” (Dam
commended)

Consumer right protection: HOBA follows VIETGAP

production criteria to ensure product quality and safety. By
scanning QR code on each banana, the consumers can know
where it was grown, the famer’s name, the deployed ripening
technique. In case of the customers’ complaints, HOBA accepts
returning the unstandardized bananas. HOBA applies the low
temperature storage which uses biological ethylene gas for fruit
ripening. This technology does not only assure the good flavour,
texture, and uniform peel colour bananas but also is naturally
safe and nutrient preserved for consumers. 

Community support: HOBA has been giving free

bananas to poor patients in the hospitals, nursing
homes, rehabilitation centers, leprosy centers, and
orphanages.

Business integrity: With its contributions to

community development, the cooperative has
enjoyed a good relationship with local authorities.
There were only two incidents that caused some
headache for Mr. Dam. The first one was a government financial support to the cooperative
to install a fruit ripening equipment. While Dam only followed the local authorities’
instructions, there appeared to be some irregularities, and the project was inspected. The
second is a current proposal from local authority to support the cooperative to install an
assembly to convert banana trees to craft products. Dam commended: “This does not fit well
with our strategy. Plus, I’m very afraid of the police when government money is involved.”