The Hard Work of the Salt Industry: Part III - The Life of... a Salt Seller!

"Who wants salt...!" A hoarse, sad cry echoed from the village entrance and the city block. Selling at the field was too low a price. Salt farmers had to carry salt on their old bicycles, going on windy, rainy, and scorching roads to make a living...

See article II-> The miserable fate of salt

The salt peddlers are most concentrated in the communes of Dien Ngoc, Dien Van, and Dien Bich (Dien Chau). As soon as dawn breaks, bicycles loaded with salt set off one after another. They travel from the lowlands to the mountainous regions, sleep there at night, and only return to their villages after selling all the salt. Everyone in Dien Van commune knows about Sinh's family's situation.

His wife was sick, his four children were crying, his food, clothes, and medicine all depended on his salt cart trips. Then one hot afternoon, Mr. Sinh pushed his cart of salt halfway up Truong Ven (Tan Ky) slope, then suddenly collapsed and died. Villagers said that due to "exhaustion of strength and power", he still struggled to carry salt up the slope, so he "ran out of breath". On the road to Van Nam hamlet, there was a small hut, where Ms. Dang Thi Ly, a disabled woman without husband or children, was sitting like a stone.

Selling salt in Dien Van (Dien Chau)

Remembering her youth, tears welled up in her eyes: Working in the salt business since she was 13, a beautiful youth filled with the salty scent of the sea, in more than 7 years of carrying salt, she traveled all over Ke Dinh, Ke Gam, Ke Moi... Once, she fell off a salt cart, her legs gradually became numb and she became... lonely, living on the love and care of the villagers. Or recently, in the middle of a hot summer afternoon, at team 9 of Xuan Thanh commune (Yen Thanh), people saw a skinny young man lying in the middle of the road with a salt cart. The villagers carried him into their house and massaged him for a long time before he regained consciousness. The villagers felt sorry for him, some more, some less, they bought him a whole bag of salt.

Ms. Vu Thi Quyen in Van Nam hamlet - Dien Van, said: Many women in Dien Van, pregnant, still go out to sell salt and give birth on the road. Luckily, God is merciful so "mother and child are safe". She confided: Being a woman on the road selling salt is very hard, brother. Carrying 2 bags of salt weighing over 100 kg at a time, cycling to Yen Thanh and then up to Anh Son, Thanh Chuong, to Vinh city. My shirt is always soaked with sweat, shouting until my voice is hoarse, sometimes I can't sell all the salt. Many days I have to go to people's houses to ask for a place to stay, or sleep in the warehouse so that I can sell all the salt the next day before returning to the village. In return for the heavy bags of salt when leaving, there is a bunch of change in my pocket, or even rice and corn that are "exchanged". For several days it has been raining and there is no salt, Ms. Quyen has to go all the way to An Hoa - Quynh Luu to buy salt at 100,000 VND/quintal. After two days of hard work, she earned 50,000 to 70,000 VND. "It's very meager, but if I don't sell salt, how can I feed my children...", Ms. Quyen lamented.

In addition to using bicycles to sell salt around neighboring districts, in recent years, Dien Van salt farmers have been active in "fishing far from shore", 5-6 families collect salt and rent a car to transport salt to remote districts such as Con Cuong, Ky Son, Tuong Duong, then use motorbikes to transport it to villages to sell. Mr. Vu Hoang Hai, 30 years old in Van Nam hamlet, said: "My family alone rented a truck to transport 5-6 tons of salt to Tuong Duong, gathering at Ban Ve hydropower plant. The transportation cost was from 2.5-3 million VND".

From here, every day, Mr. Hai uses a motorbike to transport more than 100 kg of salt to remote communes such as Yen Hoa, Yen Tinh, Nga My, Xieng My to sell. Selling salt like this is extremely hard, transporting salt over steep slopes, many rainy days the roads are slippery, falling off the motorbike is "a daily occurrence". Hai also carries salt on a boat along the lake to the most remote communes of Tuong Duong such as Nhon Mai, Mai Son... There is no motorbike road here, he has to use all his strength to carry, then carry a bag of salt weighing more than 50 kg to the Pieng Coc and Pha Khao villages of the Mong people. Hai said: "To be able to bring salt to this "midst the earth" place, the people pay a high price - more than 3,000 VND/kg of salt. They are very affectionate, some families even cook for them and let them stay overnight". It took about a dozen days to sell out the truckload of salt, then Hai traveled to Ky Son district along the upstream of the Nam Mo river to Muong Tip and Muong Ai, selling salt to the locals, then to the construction site of the border patrol road.

Mr. Minh Tuan - an agricultural extension officer of Dien Van commune said: The whole Dien Van commune has 370 households working in the salt industry, each family has a person who sells salt on the street, most of whom are women. Although this job is hard and arduous, for generations they have been carrying salt on bicycles because only by selling far away can they earn extra income. When selling in the village, traders force the price down.

It was noon. The sun was scorching hot, but I could still hear the salt vendor outside the gate. His voice echoed distantly in the hot Lao wind. The life of a salt vendor was on a journey of a thousand miles full of hardship.

Van Truong - Phu Huong