Dat Butter
Sustainable supply
VIETNAM
Location: Hoa Phu Commune, Cu Chi Province, Hồ Chí Minh City, Vietnam
Sector: Agriculture, Sales and services
Date of creation: September 2017
Date of analysis: April 2019
Project maturity: Mature but not very viable
Dat Butter is a company located in the suburbs of Ho-Chi-Minh, Vietnam. Its objective is to help Vietnamese farmers to develop while pooling resources as well as teaching sustainable culture of peanuts and cashews.
Overview
The project has three founders. The initial idea came from an American who, realizing that it was impossible to find local peanut butter in Vietnam, decided to start his own production. Vietnam is one of the first cashew productors and exporters in the world.
In this country, farmers who produce vegetables without chemicals, in a “natural” way, are often forced to sell them at the same price as others on the market. Dat Butter was born to combine the sale of a product that does not yet exist on the Vietnamese market and to support the farmers. The first jar was sold in September 2017.
- Production in 4 provinces of Vietnam, including the experimental garden.
- 12 partnerships with farmers in these provinces.
- Annual production of 20,000 pots.
- Products sold in 82 shops, including supermarkets.
- Sustainable supply
Sustainable land use
- Territorial ecology
Partnership with farmers and mutualisation of services
- Responsible consumption
Agriculture without pesticides or chemicals
Project operation
Dat Butter aims to teach “natural” farming techniques to farmers so that they can manage their land sustainably and produce good quality food. The company then buys this production (about twice as expensive as the local market) to transform it into peanut butter in their processing plant in the province of Cù Chi.
The objective of this approach is to promote an alternative way of production, far from the abuse of pesticides currently practiced in most of the countries of Southeast Asia.
Dat Butter therefore produces first in its experimental garden and then exports its know-how to the farmers, to show them that this way of working is viable. This is a win-win situation for Dat Butter, farmers, consumers and the environment. The ultimate goal will be to perpetuate these partnerships by setting up local processing units.
Finally, the company encourages the reduction of glass rejects by rewarding customers who bring back the washed jars to the point of marketing.
Sustainable approach
This program currently allows 12 farmers to switch to ‘natural’ production, without chemicals. This is a great step forward when 59.8% of Vietnamese farms do not follow the recommended doses of pesticides and chemicals, and that 10.3% of them use unauthorized products.
Dat Butter promotes healthy and sustainable agriculture while maintaining productivity, through the implementation of cultivation techniques. Finally, it supports producers by offering them income stability (the assurance of buying back all their production).
Replicability & future perspectives
The company has endeavoured to create an innovative product based on a crop that is widely grown in the country where it is established.
It also has the strength of having a pilot site that acts as a demonstrator, so that it can promote cultivation techniques to the farmers concerned.
These elements seem to be essential in order to be able to reproduce a similar system.
The project is organized in three phases:
- The first phase, which has already been reached, consists of producing in the experimental garden and buying the produce of the partner farmers to help them produce without pesticides. Dat Butter then takes care of the processing.
- The second step, and therefore the next objective, is to accompany the farmers so that they can process their production themselves and sell it under the Dat Butter label.
- The last step would be to accompany the farmers to produce other fruits and vegetables.
Finally, they plan to collect the used jars from customers in order to limit the need to buy more glass containers.