The song of honey and salt and the dream of a small giant in the plain

They are very young people. Youth is strength and broad shoulders. Just go and walk.

Question by Ho Xuan Vinh

In the days after Tet, when it was still “early”, some salt farmers in Quynh Thuan commune (Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province) drove their motorbikes to visit their fields, waiting for the sun to rise after days of lying in the cold to rake the spring salt grains. Not as busy and sweaty as during the main season, which is the period from April to the end of June and July of the lunar calendar. Along with the rainy and stormy season, this is probably the most “relaxed” period of the year for those who depend on the sun to make a living.

This season's salt is like pickled salt, which people call winter-spring salt. It is not as good as the main season, but the price is good. Besides, you buy salt at the beginning of the year and lime at the end of the year. Every little bit is good. Last year, the salt crop failed, so the price of salt increased (from 1,200 VND/kg to 2,000 - 3,000 VND/kg). Then there was war and embargo, Chinese and Indian salt entered our country, and Vietnamese salt was difficult to get out of the country due to high transportation costs, so the price of domestic salt was good. Vinh predicted that in the future, the situation would stabilize, and the price of salt might go down again.

Abaca Vietnam of Ho Xuan Vinh and his wife, headquartered in Quynh Van commune, has just "launched" the NanoSalt salt brand on the market for about a year now, but has already begun to reap sweet fruit. To prepare for its birth, this 36-year-old man had to "plot" for 5 years. Vinh smiles brightly like a salt farmer with a good harvest, but his skin is white, without the "classic" appearance of salt workers. That is, his skin is tanned by the long sunny days on his face, rosy and healthy, but overall, it still evokes something miserable and hard-working... When are Vietnamese farmers not miserable, I thought to myself.

We tentatively agreed that Ho Xuan Vinh, Tran Thi Hong Tham - Vinh's wife (co-founder of the NanoSalt brand), and the young people working here are the new generation of salt farmers - a new generation of people who still follow their ancestors' traditional profession but know how to breathe modern thinking into it, so that the hometown salt can escape the word "cheap" and go out to sea.

Ho Xuan Vinh (wearing a hat) in a production process at the factory.

Returning to his hometown to start a business 10 years ago, Ho Xuan Vinh was called the “king of inventions” and received many awards from both the central and local levels. After inventions on unburnt materials, brick presses, concrete mixing stations, self-assembling brick machines, banana fiber processing lines, etc., 5 years ago, the sharp edges of salt grains were like a “thorn” in his mind.

Memories of summers cycling across the district, from Bai Ngang then up to Giat, passing through the white salt fields in the sun... came flooding back. Ho Xuan Vinh looked at the fields today. It seemed like nothing had changed even though several decades had passed. The salt workers were not poor but not rich either. They were all old. The young people were not interested. The leaders of the salt cooperatives were also old. There was almost no breakthrough. Cultivation and distribution were the same as they were now. Suddenly this young man saw the "old" salt profession as if it were forgotten. Vinh meant that the profession did not "flow" with the breath of life in it, even though every day, we say that salt and rice are two essential items for life, national security.

If one day Quynh Luu no longer has salt workers, no more salt fields, Vinh wonders... Well, it will probably be like Thai Binh, the whole province now has only 10 hectares around the Lady of Salt Palace for tourism and spiritual services. Just like Nam Dinh now has only a meager 20 hectares, Thanh Hoa has Nghi Son salt now also giving way to an industrial park. Quang Binh has 70 hectares but has been interrupted for a long time; 2 years ago, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had to step in to redevelop a dozen hectares and encourage people to return to the profession. Then further in, Sa Huynh salt of Quang Ngai is famous but now has also been reduced, to about 100 hectares, there is a salt factory that has gone bankrupt. Binh Dinh is almost "out of business", not worth mentioning. Only Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, ... will have more.

Quynh Luu is the largest salt granary in Nghe An province (still about 600 hectares, with about 10,000 people still working). The salt in this area has a unique quality that other areas have to give up on in terms of quality and use, which is sand-dried salt. It sounds terribly sad. If we throw it away, it would be a sin for our ancestors' salt. But if we do, what else can we do?

Salt in a new form.

Lessons from honey and salt

Ho Xuan Vinh spent 5 years researching traditional medicine recipes on salt, learning about the medicinal aspects of salt, meeting with salt experts... Seawater contains many micro-minerals that are beneficial to health, not just Sodium Chloride. People only take that Sodium Chloride, so where is the rest? This 8x wondered. Then he was startled, it turned out that for a long time, we have been eating too much Sodium and lacking other micro-minerals. Then Vinh read foreign documents on medicinal salt, referring to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health on the harmful effects of eating too much salt on human health. Gradually, the salt grains danced vividly, appearing clearly and fully before Vinh's eyes. Vinh decided to make a revolution for salt.

The NanoSalt brand was born to answer all the questions and convey the wishes for the salt of his hometown of Ho Xuan Vinh. NanoSalt is the abbreviation of the words “Nghe An Ocean Salt”. I said, in another way, the word “nano” suggests something related to technology. Coincidentally, Ho Xuan Vinh’s salt reduces saltiness by using technology. The name is salt reduces saltiness but still adds other micro-minerals.

During that revolution, Vinh and his colleagues discovered salt molasses. How strange. The first time I saw a liquid that looked like molasses seeping from the salt fields could also bring income to the salt farmers, I was so surprised. Ho Xuan Vinh and his wife named it “salt molasses”. What other name is more appropriate? Probably not. That gift from the sea, but for many years our people considered it a by-product and threw it away. Vinh estimated that 50,000 tons of salt produced could have about 20,000 tons of salt molasses. It taught this new salt farmer a lesson, that is, nothing is worthless, it’s just that we don’t know how to do it.

Vinh said that the salt molasses contain sodium, potassium, magnesium and 60 other trace minerals. After collecting salt and salt molasses from the cooperatives, Abaca Vietnam uses 3 technological inventions to separate different types of salt: seasoning salt (reduced salt, reduced salt seasoning powder, shrimp salt, spicy and sour salt, non-iodized salt), medicinal salt (foot bath salt, baby bath salt, epsom salt (spa/massage/face wash/exfoliate). Abaca Vietnam is still continuing to research and produce new products. When I arrived at the factory, Vinh boasted that he had just successfully tested a new feng shui and five-element colored salt sample containing essential oils.

Currently, NanoSalt is present in 12 provinces and cities across the country. This Nghe An guy does not hide his ambition to shape Nanosalf into a world of salt. Vinh said, salt is much more colorful than its traditional angle. Besides salty salt, there is also bitter salt. Mastering the technique, you will have the desired salt.

Little Giant's Dream

Opposite Ho Xuan Vinh's salt factory is Lap Son mountain. There is the Quynh Van archaeological site. An entire island once held many traces of ancient Vietnamese people, and to this day, there are still many scallops left right on the path. Vinh told me about his father, Mr. Ho Van Hoan, the owner of Ho Hoan Cau Mechanical Factory (later Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited, he was a scientist for farmers or an inventor for the poor in 2015 - PV).

Decades ago, burnt bricks were expensive, and people had no money to buy them. They used scallop shells from this island mixed with lime to make bricks. Some houses took 10 years to build enough bricks. At that time, there was a project to upgrade the national highway in the area. The Korean construction unit only took 1x2 and 3x4 stones, and discarded the crushed stone (stone powder smaller than crushed stone), piling it up into mountains. Mr. Hoan invented a manual brick molding machine to create unburnt bricks from the raw materials of crushed stone and scallop shells. Vinh said that his father did not come up with the idea on his own. The machine was born thanks to him knowing how to exploit local resources. Then the children followed suit, following their father's example.

Ho Xuan Vinh really likes the book "Small Giants" by former journalist Bo Burlingham. It is a book that talks deeply about sustainable businesses that are rooted in the locality. Perhaps, these are businesses that are not large in scale but have the power of a "giant" in its industry. Through the book, Bo Burlingham has proven one thing: Bigger does not always mean better or greater. Instead, there is something more important, which is to promote your identity and be the best in your field.

Referring to this famous book as an inspiration in guiding the way, Ho Xuan Vinh said that the path of Abaca Vietnam will also be tied to local resources. That business must create livelihoods and values ​​locally. More broadly, values ​​for an industry. Here, the salt industry. In that way of speaking, it is clear that small but “powerful”.

Last year, although it was just a trial run and starting to get acquainted with the market, Ho Xuan Vinh's NanoSalt brand introduced a new model to the salt industry. Not counting traditional salt businesses, in our country, spice-making units operate separately, and those that make cosmetics operate separately. The common feature is that people only consider salt as an ingredient. NanoSalt is different when choosing to develop and deeply process salt products. The input material is salt, the final product is also salt. NanoSalt is both a technology leader, mastering the production process, and at the same time, creating a completely new raw material area, that is, exploiting new raw materials on old fields.

Scoop up a handful of salt and put a few grains in your mouth to let it melt. The salt crystals of the past were salty and burning; countless lives of people toiling and withering in the sun were present, relying on the salt grains to earn a living. Now, it lies peacefully in my hands and will have a different face thanks to the application of technology in production. Not just Ho Xuan Vinh's NanoSalt, but anywhere on this S-shaped strip of land, whoever creates added value for salt, so that people can smile, deserves the two words "thank you". So that the coastal plains, yesterday are still a beautiful sea, and on them, tomorrow, there will be returning waves.