Your name: David Ngo

Year the company was started:  2024

Where are the products made? 

Nam Fruits is a 100% Canadian company based in Montréal, Québec. We work with a trusted manufacturing partner in Vietnam to produce our fruit snacks.

What is the ‘key ingredient’ that makes your product line special? 

Vietnamese tropical fruit, sourced for flavour and quality. Our products are Non-GMO, gluten-free, no added colours, no added flavours, and made with a very short ingredient list.

What motivated you to start your company and create the products that we see today? 

Vietnam was a turning point for me. Being there showed me how exceptional the fruit was and the opportunity to share it beyond the country. I started by exporting fresh fruit to China and quickly learned how unforgiving that business can be, which led me to pivot into shelf-stable fruit snacks.

I’ve built a consumer packaged goods brand before, and this allowed me to apply that experience using Vietnamese products. There’s also a personal side to it. My dad fled Vietnam in 1979 to give our family a better life in Canada. Years later, I found myself back in Vietnam building a brand and bringing it to Canada to help give my own kids a better life.

What are your company’s core values?

• Quality & Consistency: Delivering dependable products and execution, without cutting corners.
• Relationships: Building long-term, trusted partnerships with our factories, team, customers, and retail partners.
• Respect: Respect for the people we work with, the regions we source from, and the consumers who trust our brand.

If you could tell a retailer three things about what makes your brand different, what would they be? 

A. The product sells itself once customers try it.

The flavour, texture, and quality stand out immediately. We consistently hear, “These are the best dried mangoes I’ve ever had.”

B. It redefines a familiar category.

Dried mango may seem like a commodity, but Nam Fruits delivers a noticeably different experience that appeals across all age groups.

C. The quality is intentional, not accidental.

We spent two years sourcing across Vietnam to find what we believe is the best: thick cut, juicy, and intensely flavourful dried mango.

What are some challenges you’ve had to overcome to bring your business to its current state?

Fresh fruit taught us some hard lessons early on, including losses and waste in a category where timing and conditions are often out of our control, which led us to pivot into shelf-stable fruit snacks.

From there, we navigated the realities of food CPG, including compliance, packaging revisions, shipping delays, and costly inspections. Each challenge forced us to improve, and today we’re operating with CFIA-compliant packaging, stronger planning, and growing confidence as we continue to build momentum.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I genuinely enjoy building and growing Nam Fruits. Sales and closing a deal give me the same rush others get from winning a game, but everything I do is grounded in my family. I’ve been married to my wife for 17 years, and together we’re raising two teenage daughters, 16 and 14.

I’m also big into fitness, and a few years ago our family decided to learn how to ski together, which we all ended up loving. Whether we’re travelling, skiing, eating somewhere great, or just at home spending time together, being with my family is what keeps me balanced and motivated.