Thomas Hooft ( Dalat Hasfarm ) on VTV3

When Thomas Hooft, general director of Dalat Hasfarm, first set foot in Da Lat in 1992, there was not a single greenhouse in the mountain town. But now 6,000-7,000 farmers cultivate flowers in 1,400 hectares of greenhouse space. Flower growers like Nguyen Van Thanh attribute the "greenhouse effect" to the success of Hooft as Dutch-invested farm, which was established in 1994. Its success encouraged farmers to expand their flower farms and invest in greenhouses to improve quality, he said. Hooft said he ran a flower farm in Indonesia before 1993 but its produce was not good enough to export to countries like Singapore, Japan, and Australia. "I thought we could find a place in Asia where we could grow suitable, good quality flowers for export. I looked around in different places in Asia: Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam," he said. "When I came to Da Lat, I immediately thought the other places are not as good because Da Lat is situated 1,500 meters above sea level; there is water available, land available, manpower available, and the international airport is about six hours away." When he first arrived, farmers in Da Lat had "no idea" what a greenhouse was, he said. But just three or four years after Hooft set up his farm, droves of local farmers were following suit. Dalat Hasfarm was the first in Vietnam to import new flower breeds from the Netherlands and other European countries, creating a rich gene base and introducing new varieties of high-quality flowers every year. For many years now it has been providing seeds to farmers and buying their flowers for export. www.dalathasfarm.com