At the forefront of Vietnam’s agricultural transformation, Dr. Lyndal Hugo is not just growing vegetables — she’s cultivating a revolution with a team of trailblazing women, proving that innovation and determination can reshape our world’s future.
Environmental chemist and agri-scientist Dr. Lyndal Hugo, who holds a PhD and a postdoctoral fellowship, likes to post boxing videos on social media from her home in Ho Chi Minh City. With dance moves woven between the jabs and uppercuts, these posts tell you a lot about Dr. Hugo, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Orlar, an agri-tech company that is getting noticed all over the world. One of Orlar’s proudest boasts is that its patented method of growing fruit and vegetables above the ground is more energy efficient than just about any other form of agriculture. Dr. Hugo and her team are keenly aware of the urgent need to mitigate, rather than contribute to, climate change. However, inventing a new way of farming and building a sustainable business in a frontier economy takes a huge amount of personal energy and drive. Those videos of Dr. Hugo prancing around in boxing gloves give you a good sense of her high-octane approach.
In recent years, Michele Wee Sung San, former Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Bank in Vietnam with whom Orlar banks, has come to know Dr. Hugo well and describes her as “larger than life, a scientist and visionary.”
“I believe she has found her mission and has made herself personally accountable to deliver sustainable impact first in Vietnam and then globally,” Wee says.
Orlar is both Dr. Hugo’s baby and her driving force. Together with her partner, horticulturalist Amanda Cornelissen, she invented a high-tech growing system that has succeeded where many have failed by growing pesticide-free food, first in the cooler temperatures of Central Highlands city of Dalat, more recently in Long An province in the Mekong Delta. The effectiveness has been independently verified by the early backer, the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD).
You could not mistake an Orlar farm for anything else. The company has painstakingly engineered polymer pods that are filled with organic certified mineral substrate – the Orlarock – to grow nutrient-dense produce.
The 13 provinces of the Mekong Delta are Vietnam’s agricultural heartland. This area produces half the country’s rice and is home to 20 million people. It’s also in great peril. Upstream dams have reduced freshwater flows and prompted farmers to tap groundwater reserves, leading to seawater encroachment and subsidence. The saltwater intrusion will increase as sea levels rise due to climate change. It’s getting increasingly difficult to grow traditional crops – led by rice – in Vietnam’s food bowl.
Orlar’s transformational technology could flourish here. It allows the production of temperate vegetables that has previously only been able to grow at higher altitudes. Working with development banks, Orlar has also proved it can operate off grid.
“Orlar’s innovative farming technologies use minimal natural resources with the aim to create scalable, sustainable solutions that enhance food security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve energy and water to foster economic growth in vulnerable regions,” Wee notes.
“The Vietnamese government is working hard to address the greatest concerns in the Delta. The private sector is additive to these solutions. We need not only economically viable but scalable innovation to help with the transition and I see an opportunity for Orlar to create a long-term sustainable positive impact for the people in the Mekong Delta,” Wee continues.
Orlar has been long on innovation from the start and now, with a five-hectare farm in Long An in the offing, it’s turning the dial on scalability.
It’s been 11 years since Dr. Hugo founded the company back in Brisbane Australia, shifting to Vietnam in 2017. After some tough early years, Orlar’s leafy greens and strawberries are now a staple on many supermarket shelves and Dr. Hugo is flying around the world to talk to potential investors.
For many of these investors though, it’s not just the Orlar growing system that they have to get their heads around. It’s also a very firm vision of the type of enterprise the two founders have nursed from the beginning.
“Through the Orlar Impact Foundation, the goal is to not only build greenhouses on behalf of communities to grow nutritious food but also to provide jobs. In Dr. Hugo’s words, it’s “a powerful combination that will enable climate change adaptation for the places and people who need it the most.”
She points out that Orlar– founded by “two crazy Australians in the jungle” – is succeeding with the help of and support of other wise women. “We are 80 percent ethnic minority and 80 percent women and we are getting stuff done.”
This year a new partnership has – literally – opened doors for Orlar. A few months ago. The company entered a joint venture with San Ha, a giant in the food business. San Ha was founded by Madam Pham Thi Ngoc Ha in 1988. From humble beginnings, San Ha is now one of Vietnam’s biggest chicken producers with its five factories supplying more than 200 tons of chicken meat a day. In addition to this core business, there are also about 50 San Ha food stores selling vegetables, chicken, and imported goods. It’s a huge integrated business and now Orlar’s fruit and vegetables will supply the joint venture with San Ha handling sales and distribution.
Madam Ha’s son Giang says his mother sees in Dr. Hugo the same ambition and drive that enabled her to create a business empire from literally nothing. For Dr. Hugo, the partnership is precious.
“Together Madam Ha and I intend to build the biggest vegetable company in South-East Asia.”
With the help of a grant from the Australian government, Orlar is already growing leafy greens at a Long An farm on San Ha land. This is the all-important proof of concept.
“People have to fly in to see it before they believe it,” Dr. Hugo says.” We are growing vegetables at temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius that could previously only grow at between 20 and 30 degrees. We have de-risked this technology.”
When this entrepreneur and evangelist considers how she is working with people like Madam Ha, Madam Michele Wee and so many others from diplomatic and development funding sources, she sounds almost overwhelmed. The Orlar story has brought these women together – and it is just about to take off.
“The Orlar story has become so big – from Singapore to Berlin, from HCMC to Canberra – we have proven ourselves. We have hard-earned credibility. Now business is business, but there is an understanding here that we are breaking new ground and we are doing it collaboratively. It really is all these women helping each other, helping Orlar, and it is incredible,” Dr. Hugo says.
