Traditional fish sauce loses market share: A difficult problem.

The story of traditional fish sauce losing market share is not a new problem, yet it remains unresolved, affecting the lives of thousands of fishing families in renowned fish sauce-producing villages across the country.

Many traditional fish sauce producers believe that the coexistence of traditional and industrially produced fish sauce must be accepted. The key issue is to change the market approach for traditional fish sauce, and achieving this cannot rely solely on the efforts of these producers.

A traditional fish sauce processing facility (Photo: VTV News)Fish sauce making has a long history, with no fewer than 100 families involved in the craft. Yet, currently, in Binh Tan village, Phuoc Long ward, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, only a few households still make fish sauce. For many years, the fish sauce-making equipment has been left abandoned in many families.

At some processing facilities, fish sauce is sold in bulk, without labels or quality information. Sales volume has been declining year after year.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, owner of a fish sauce processing facility, said: "Previously, my production facility shipped a truckload of 400-500 barrels every two days, but now, there's only one shipment a month."

In the market located in Binh Tan fish sauce village, industrially produced fish sauce bottles dominate the stalls and are displayed in prominent positions. Meanwhile, the village's traditional fish sauce is losing ground.

Explaining the strong consumption of industrially produced fish sauce, fish sauce retailers said it was due to consumer demand.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, a small business owner in Phuoc Long ward, said: "Because consumers need it, we stock it to sell; it's easy to buy and easy to use."

Loss of market share is the reason why many traditional fish sauce production villages are facing precarious situations. This has led to many families losing their jobs. Some fish sauce production facilities with sufficient financial capacity to maintain production have to accept the situation of selling their fish sauce to industrial processing facilities at prices that barely cover costs.

It is estimated that each kilogram of anchovies yields 1.1 liters of fish sauce. However, it takes 8-12 months to produce the fish sauce, meaning the return on investment is very slow.

Mr. Nguyen Hoai Son, Secretary of the Nha Trang Fish Sauce Association in Khanh Hoa province, said: "For the marketing and promotion of industrial fish sauce, they spend 70% of their profits on it, while we are very modest; it's not that we don't know how to do it, but we know and don't have the resources to do it."

To obtain a brand name for each type of fish sauce product, fish sauce producers have to spend about 3 million VND. This is why, in traditional fish sauce production, some large-scale producers do not create their own brands, instead selling their fish sauce to established brands.

To regain market share for traditional fish sauce, many believe that it is necessary to accept the reality of selling traditional fish sauce to industrial fish sauce processing facilities, but this should only be seen as a short-term solution to support long-term goals.

Mr. Nguyen Hoai Son added: "You have to sell fish sauce to industrial corporations to get capital back faster, but you have to coexist with them, not clash. You have to create products with unique characteristics, features that cannot be diluted with industrial fish sauce."

The Nha Trang Fish Sauce Association alone has a production capacity of 30 million liters per year. For that much fish sauce to be accepted by consumers, it requires not only changes in production methods but, more importantly, a change in market approach.

Consumers find it difficult to choose a bottle of fish sauce without seeing the quality stated on the label or hearing product information... But the amount of money spent on marketing is almost zero for many families producing traditional fish sauce.

According to (VTV News)- LC