Traditional fish sauce loses market share: A difficult problem

The story of the loss of market share of traditional fish sauce, a problem that is not new but has not been resolved until now, affects the lives of thousands of fishing families in famous fish sauce villages across the country.

Many traditional fish sauce manufacturers believe that it is necessary to accept the parallel existence of traditional fish sauce and industrial fish sauce. The key issue is to change the market approach of traditional fish sauce products, and to do so, it cannot rely solely on the efforts of fish sauce manufacturers.

A traditional fish sauce processing facility (Photo: VTV News)Fish sauce making has been around for a long time with no less than 100 families making it, but currently, in the whole village of Binh Tan, Phuoc Long ward, Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, there are only a few households still making fish sauce. For many years, the tools for making fish sauce have been abandoned in many families.

At some processing facilities, fish sauce is sold by the barrel, without a brand name or quality declaration. Sales volume has been decreasing year by year.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa, owner of a fish sauce processing facility, said: "Previously, my production facility had a truck every two days, each trip carrying 400-500 barrels. Now, there is only one trip a month."

At the market right in Binh Tan fish sauce village, industrial fish sauce bottles occupy most of the stalls and are located in eye-catching positions. Meanwhile, the village’s traditional fish sauce is losing its position.

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

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, a trader in Phuoc Long ward, said: "Because consumers have demand, I buy it to sell. It's easy to buy and easy to use."

Loss of market share is the reason why many traditional fish sauce villages are in a precarious situation. This leads to many families losing their jobs. Some fish sauce production facilities with financial capacity to maintain production have to accept the situation of selling fish sauce to industrial fish sauce processing facilities at a price that hardly covers the costs.

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

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

To get a brand for each product, fish sauce production facilities have to spend about 3 million VND. This is the reason why in the production of traditional fish sauce, there are large-scale fish sauce production facilities, but do not create a brand, accepting to sell fish sauce to facilities with brands.

To regain market share for traditional fish sauce, many opinions say that it is necessary to accept the reality of selling traditional fish sauce to industrial fish sauce processing facilities, but this must be considered as just a way to "take short-term profits and sustain long-term profits".

Mr. Nguyen Hoai Son added: “I have to sell fish sauce to industrial corporations to get capital to turn around faster, but we have to live together and not be in conflict. We have to create products with unique characteristics, characteristics that cannot be dissolved with industrial fish sauce.”

Just counting the units belonging to the Nha Trang Fish Sauce Association, the fish sauce production capacity is 30 million liters/year. To make that much fish sauce accepted by consumers, it is necessary to change not only the production method but more importantly the market approach.

It is difficult for consumers to choose a bottle of fish sauce when they have not seen the quality declared on the label, have not heard the product introduction information... But the amount of money spent on marketing, for many families making traditional fish sauce, is almost zero.

According to (VTV News)- LC