Craft village in Nghe An exports incense sticks to Laos

(Baonghean.vn) - With just over 2 months left until Lunar New Year, people in Tay Lan incense stick village, Nghi Truong (Nghi Loc) are currently diversifying their product designs, ready to serve the Tet market.

Last November, villagers exported 500,000 incense sticks to Laos.

The process of making incense shell. Photo: Thu Hien

This year, the weather was unfavorable, with heavy rain affecting the incense drying process of the villagers. However, the incense makers were very excited, because this year, the village had many orders.

Mr. Le Van Nam's family in hamlet 5, Nghi Truong commune, is one of the households with many years of experience in making Tay Lan incense sticks. They said: To compete with the market, for the past two years, the family has chosen to use raw materials to make incense entirely from herbs such as: Agarwood roots, star anise, cinnamon, cardamom from the districts of Quy Chau, Quy Hop, Thanh Chuong, Quynh Luu...

The advantage of herbal incense is that it is not harmful to the health of the user, as well as the direct producer. On average, the family supplies the market with nearly 3,000 incense sticks of all kinds every day. Thanks to herbal production, last November the family signed an order to export 500,000 sticks to Laos. After deducting expenses, the family still has a net profit of over 150 million VND each year from the incense making business.

Mr. Le Van Nam - Hamlet 5, Nghi Truong Commune - Nghi Loc shared: "To deliver to customers on time, we hired 5 workers to work continuously, day and night, to import daily for regular customers, import to Laos, and reserve goods for export during the 2018 Lunar New Year."

Tay Lan Nghi Truong incense stick craft village currently has 13 households specializing in incense production, with 100 regular workers and more than 150 seasonal workers. The development of the craft village has created jobs for hundreds of workers to earn extra income.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan - Hamlet 5, Nghi Truong Commune, Nghi Loc said: "The craft village has created conditions for me to be hired to make incense for more than 5 years. This job is very suitable for women, although it is hard but not tiring, thanks to the craft village, people like us have the opportunity to work extra, each day we are paid 80-90 thousand VND".

Many families are actively producing Tet goods. Photo by Thu Hien

In order to develop the craft village, in addition to training and seminars to disseminate new scientific and technological knowledge, in the past 5 years, the Commune and District Farmers' Association has created conditions for 13 craft village households to access capital from the province's farmer support fund, with a total budget of 350 million VND, creating conditions for incense-producing households to invest in purchasing machinery and incense-making equipment such as raw material mixers and stick-shooting machines. On average, each incense-making family has 1-3 incense-making machines using new technology. Up to now, households have basically purchased modern machinery and equipment, so the products are both beautiful and meet consumer needs.

On average, Tay Lan Nghi Truong incense stick craft village produces 50,000-60,000 incense sticks of all kinds every day, with peak times such as October, November and December producing 90,000-100,000 incense sticks of all kinds. Through the craft village, it has contributed to creating new jobs for nearly 150 workers each year with an average income of 2.5-3.5 million VND/person/month.

Thu Hien