The early season sun was harsh, combined with the salty vapor rising from the salt fields, burning the skin. At noon, the salt workers in Tan Thang salt village were still “working their faces to the ground, their backs to the sky” to scoop water for irrigation and turn the soil. The manual work was very hard, but the income was not enough, so people of working age tried to switch to other jobs: trading, construction work, working as workers… so now the salt village is full of only the elderly and students.
Because of that, there were years when the price of salt was low, people had to abandon their salt fields, put away their buckets and carts, and put their wheelbarrows in storage. The plots were overgrown with grass and water spinach; the warehouses were closed and silent; the salt fields were deserted even in the main season…
The salt industry is facing the risk of being lost and fading away. “If salt fields are converted to raising and growing other crops, salt will never be made again. Salt prices are low one year, high the next, making salt is hard and miserable, but salt farmers are still indebted to the profession and still want to stick with it. I just hope that the salt grains will be more valuable and the salt farmers’ lives will be less difficult,” Mr. Bui Xuan Dien - Director of Thang Loi Salt Cooperative (An Hoa commune, Quynh Luu district) worried.
Worried about the salt of her hometown being overwhelmed by industrial salt, and saddened by the fact that a traditional profession of her ancestors is at risk of disappearing, Tran Thi Hong Tham (born in 1992, Quynh Van commune, Quynh Luu district) always worries about one thing: how to ease the suffering of salt farmers, how to increase the value of the "white gold" of Quynh Luu district. These worries receive the active support of her husband - the "king of inventions" - engineer Ho Xuan Vinh.
Tran Thi Hong Tham shared: “In the process of salt production, salt farmers only collect the salt grains, but the water (the water that drips out after harvesting the salt grains) is dumped and discharged outside, which is both wasteful and polluting the environment. According to the test results, this is the “essence of the sea”, in the water there are up to 60 minerals that are beneficial to human health, it is the quintessence of the salt making process, so we call it “salt honey”. How to exploit the resource value of this “white gold” mine is a concern for Vinh and Tham – the children of the salt homeland.
It took Vinh, Tham and their colleagues 5 years to travel to all the salt fields of Vietnam, meet many experts in the salt industry, and access many research projects on salt in the country and around the world. Vinh himself spent money to go to some regions in Northern Europe to study the experiences of salt production in cold climates all year round. And most importantly, listen to the experiences and folk knowledge of the salt farmers in the salt fields, such as the bitter salt recipe that the salt farmers in the North can only harvest in the winter, when it is cold but sunny, or the way people harvest salt flowers in the middle of a hot summer noon.
After completing the technological process, we started to design and invent the accompanying equipment lines to produce on a large-scale production line. How to separate different types of mineral salts from salt molasses, and what principles, using hot or cold heat... After many years of research and discovery, in 2021, the team completed the technological process and accompanying equipment lines, filed 3 patents and officially created their own unique multi-layer separation technology of marine minerals from salt molasses, as a foundation for deep processing of hometown salt grains. “Every year, the output of molasses in Quynh Luu is about 30,000 tons, which is both wasteful and polluting. Now, we buy that amount of molasses from people at 500-600 VND/kg, half the price of raw salt. Accordingly, salt farmers have an additional 50% income from salt by-products that were previously wasted,” said engineer Ho Xuan Vinh.
And not stopping there, through the salt project, the couple Tham - Vinh want to promote Quynh Luu sand-dried salt to the market, gradually building a brand for Quynh Luu salt. “Quynh Luu sand-dried salt is a traditional handmade salt with its own characteristics, with a diverse marine mineral content, containing many minerals of magnesium, potassium, calcium, which are good for human health. However, unfortunately, Quynh Luu handmade sand-dried salt has not been trademarked and has not been promoted to highlight its value. Therefore, the market still cannot distinguish the difference between industrial salt and Quynh Luu sand-dried salt, causing Quynh salt to be equated and undervalued like imported industrial salt. Therefore, what we want to aim for is to build a brand and value for Quynh Luu sand-dried salt”, Ho Xuan Vinh worries.
Step by step, persistently and firmly, the couple Tham - Vinh are making efforts to show consumers the value of Quynh Luu sand-dried salt. Currently, there are 4 product lines, with 22 main products, 3 of which have been granted OCOP certification from Quynh Luu salt. The couple and their colleagues have traveled everywhere, finding every way to make products processed from Quynh Luu salt available on shelves, supermarkets, and display booths at fairs and seminars.
And the “sweet fruit” of that perseverance is that Quynh salt products have initially been positively received by consumers. “15,000 products were sold in 6 months, the problem is not revenue or profit, but what makes us happiest is the pride, the soul of the hometown salt fields that many people know”, said Ho Xuan Vinh.
When Quynh salt products gradually have a foothold in the market, Tham, Vinh and their colleagues, whom I call "new generation salt farmers", are aiming to export salt to foreign markets. Because as Vinh shared, salt is an essential need of humans, a transnational commodity, with international character. Human history has also witnessed cultural and economic exchanges via the silk roads and sea routes of countries when trading salt with each other. Therefore, the salt market is a global market. Quynh Luu traditional sand-dried salt is a unique and special type of salt, using the sand-dried method for production, with low cost, so it is competitive enough with products in the world. Deep processing of salt products based on traditional sand-dried salt ensures all conditions of hygiene and safety, and quality, so aiming for export is the near future.
And to prepare for a near future, a bright future for Quynh salt, to make the salt industry prosperous and sustainable, they - the new generation of salt farmers are making constant efforts to realize the dream of bringing Quynh salt "across the sea".
And most recently, Vinh, Tham and their colleagues continued to open another story for their hometown salt village, which is to create the salt village in An Hoa into a tourist destination in Nghe An. It is the desire to put An Hoa on the tourist map. "When tourists come to the salt village in An Hoa, they eat, stay, and experience the salt making process with the locals. Their length of stay will also increase, leading to the development of other services. In particular, the products of the salt village will become more widely known, and the Quynh Luu sand-dried salt brand will also have a greater influence thanks to that," Ho Xuan Vinh confided.
