South Koreans Introduced to Vietnam’s Sugarcane Juice

Huynh Chon Phuong, already a busy businesswomen who ran a family business with her husband, became famous as the “sugarcane juice lady” in her province, Choengju.

It started with a spontaneous idea to sell Vietnamese sugarcane juice at a local fair market, said Phuong. She ran the booth with a few part-time workers, not expecting the drink to be an instant sold-out.

“Typically, we have 7 people working in order to serve the customers. At full capacity, we have 10 people, just to peel the sugarcane,” claimed the Vietnamese seller.

On the first day of business, Phuong sold 700 cups of sugarcane juice. This is something Phuong did not expect because sugarcane juice is also sold at her family-owned restaurant, but never a popular drink until now.

The first day of business, Phuong sold 700 cups of sugarcane juice (Photo; Thethaovanhoa)

“Customers from the first day of the fair market told their friends about our stall so on the second and third days [of the fair market], we had a long line of customers. At our peak, we sold 1,200 cups. That is 1,5 tons of sugarcane.”, said Phuong.

Fresh sugarcane juice, a common drink in Vietnam, became a big hit in Choengju (Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea.)

According to Phuong, the popular drink suits Korean taste.

“I used to make juice using Vietnamese green sugarcane, but it wasn’t as sweet, Koreans didn’t like it. So I switched to Hoa Binh purple sugarcane. This type of sugarcane is imported from a Korean company, so it is fresh. To make to drink, I keep the original flavor to maintain the sweetness, and add lemon, kumquat to enhance the tastiness,” said Phuong.

She added that the customers are so pleased, they asked for the address of her restaurant to visit next time. At the moment, Phuong plans to run another juice stand at a 10-day fair market in Choengju. She is confident that this will also become a success as she has more experience.

Although her sugarcane juice business temporarily ended after 3 days of the fair market, it caused a sensation online. Phuong said that many Vietnamese entrepreneurs living in Korea texted and called to ask her about starting a business. As she passed on her experience, Phuong stressed the most important thing, which is pricing.

Another thing Phuong suggested to young Vietnamese who wants to start their businesses overseas is to carefully prepare a business license and paper, especially a health code check.