Businesses Seek to Elevate the Status of Avocados

Phạm Thị Thu Hằng founded Pơ Lang, a company that produces lip balm and shampoo from avocados, aiming to increase the value of a fruit closely tied to her childhood.

Pơ Lang has researched and developed 14 different products. Currently, the company’s ecosystem is divided into three main categories: lip care, skin care, and hair care, with products such as fresh avocado lip balm, avocado facial cleansing oil, avocado face masks, avocado soap, avocado coffee bath salts, ginger avocado shampoo, and ginger avocado body wash.

Before entering the world of production and business, Phạm Thị Thu Hằng—a native of Đắk Lắk—was a biology teacher. She understood that avocados, often dubbed the “queen of fruits,” are rich in nutrients and contain many beneficial compounds for skin health.

However, avocado prices often fluctuate dramatically, sometimes dropping to just a few thousand VND per kilogram. Farmers are frequently pressured by traders to accept low prices, sometimes needing to sell several kilograms of avocados just to afford a kilogram of rice. Hằng's father once stood for hours under the hot sun just to negotiate a mere 500 VND increase per kilogram.

Unwilling to watch farmers sell their hard-earned produce for cheap, Hằng was determined to find a way to add value to her hometown’s agricultural products. Deep down, she always believed: “Vietnamese agricultural goods are something to be proud of, not something to be rescued.” She left her teaching career and founded the Pơ Lang Project – “Pure Beauty,” and established Pơ Lang Production and Trading Co., Ltd. in 2020, embarking on a mission to produce clean, natural skincare products from fresh avocados.

Phạm Thị Thu Hằng, founder of Pơ Lang. Photo: Vũ Thị Huệ

As a biology master's degree holder, Hằng knows that avocados are high in vitamin K, C, B5, B3, and E, which help soften skin, speed up recovery, and prevent wrinkles. Vitamin A and glutamine help cleanse the skin and remove dead cells. Avocados also contain compounds that protect skin from sun-induced oxidation. The oil extracted from avocados has antibacterial properties that help prevent acne.

By learning from experts, Hằng and the Pơ Lang team successfully extracted pure fresh avocado oil. From there, a series of products were developed and embraced by women for their effectiveness and skin-friendliness—even safe for pregnant women and babies.

“The backbone of Pơ Lang is our raw material source—located in the country’s largest avocado-growing area, with an annual yield of 200,000 tons. Đắk Lắk’s Booth and 034 avocado varieties are well known for their high nutritional value and rich flavor,” Hằng shared.

Pơ Lang’s advantage lies in its location at the high-quality raw material source. Photo: Vũ Thị Huệ

Pơ Lang chose to stay close to the raw material zone, focusing on making the best possible products instead of setting up headquarters in high-demand urban centers. “We source only the best avocados for production,” Hằng said.

In recent years, Pơ Lang has partnered with cooperatives to help farmers upgrade avocado cultivation zones. The company provides technical guidance, guarantees purchases, and ensures both quality and quantity. “High-quality avocado pulp allows us to extract oil at twice the yield compared to regular avocados,” Hằng added.

The company employs two experimental biology master’s degree holders, who spent years researching avocado extraction and commercial applications. Pơ Lang uses a closed-loop production system with sterile facilities and modern equipment to ensure high product quality and preserve the avocado’s natural benefits.

Pơ Lang is certified by the Ministry of Health and offers full traceability. All products are tested for ASEAN-standard indicators before being registered and approved for distribution.

Avocado face cleansing soap by Pơ Lang. Photo: Vũ Thị Huệ

Looking ahead, Pơ Lang aims to build a CGMP-compliant factory. Over the next three years, the startup plans to expand its avocado-growing area from 20 hectares (yielding 200 tons/year) to 50–100 hectares (yielding 500–1,000 tons/year).

Pơ Lang is actively working to supply its products to major beauty chains to capture the domestic market. The broader goal is to export to countries that don’t grow avocados, such as Japan, South Korea, and China.