Nghe An: Strengthening the 'status' of traditional fish sauce

(Baonghean) - Traditional fish sauce has been positioned in Vietnamese cuisine and is a commodity that plays a major role in the daily consumer market. Overcoming difficulties, especially in recent times, thousands of coastal households in Nghe An have persisted in the fish sauce production profession by constantly improving quality.

Leading in featured products

In the list of typical rural industrial products announced by the People's Committee of Nghe An province in 2014 and 2016 (voted every 2 years), fish sauce always dominates with the largest quantity. In 2014, the whole province had 11 typical products, of which fish sauce had 3 craft villages, including Van Phan, Phu Loi and Hai Giang 1 fish sauce. In September 2016, among the 13 products of the whole province, there were 4 fish sauce products including those of the above 3 units and 559 fish sauce of Quynh Luu Seafood Joint Stock Company. The above information shows the prominence of the culinary dish of fish sauce crystallized from anchovies with salt and sunlight, becoming a typical traditional product that is honored.

That honor, in addition to good quality, the activities of fish sauce craft villages also contribute positively to increasing the value of coastal fishing activities. Because every year, with 10 craft villages and joint stock companies, the Fish Sauce and Shrimp Paste Processing Company Limited has consumed dozens of tons of seafood for fishermen at sea. In particular, fishermen of Hoang Mai Town have more than 1,000 fishing boats, mainly in the fishing grounds of the Gulf of Tonkin and Hoang Sa, Truong Sa, catching an average of over 30,000 tons of anchovies each year. This is the main and valuable raw material for the production of delicious fish sauce typical of Nghe An. This source of raw materials is also "hunted" by traders to supply many craft villages and fish sauce processing facilities in the southern provinces.

Mr. Nguyen Dang Tai - Deputy Head of the Town's Economic Department said: Because of this source of raw materials, fish sauce processing villages in Hoang Mai can choose fresh and delicious anchovies, producing famous fish sauce products in Quynh Di and coastal communes.

Classification of anchovies used as raw materials for fish sauce. Photo: Bich Ngoc

Perhaps that is why, in Hoang Mai town, there are two traditional fish sauce villages, Phu Loi and Phuong Can, attracting hundreds of families to participate with fish sauce products that are considered rich in fat, delicious and high in protein. Each year, the two villages process 4.5 million liters of fish sauce, which is strongly consumed in the markets of the northern provinces. Mr. Nguyen Duc Xan - Head of Phu Loi village shared: "If the consumption market is expanded, people can increase the fish sauce output many times. Another special thing is that many households making fish sauce here also maintain a fleet of boats, catching fresh seafood every year for processing. Even my family still maintains a boat over 300 CV to go offshore, combining both the traditional profession of going to sea and the profession of making fish sauce...".

Nghe An's traditional fish sauce is also exported to many countries such as Laos, Angola, Malaysia, Korea, Australia, China, etc. That is the effort of Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company in its persistent commitment to the traditional fish sauce processing profession. Each year, the company exports over 40 thousand liters of fish sauce. The company representative said that to make delicious fish sauce, the first step is that the fish must be fresh. Most sea fish sources can be used to make fish sauce, but only black anchovies and charcoal anchovies give the characteristic delicious fish sauce. The company has over 70 large jackfruit wooden barrels with a capacity of over 1,000 tons of raw fish. The company's fish sauce processing process is completely traditional, with fermentation - pressing, completely "ripening" naturally within 9 - 12 months. During that process, workers have to take care of, stir the water, dry it in the sun, and stir it... With the same process, the fish sauce production villages in Cua Lo and Cua Hoi produce millions of liters of fish sauce to supply the market and serve tourists.

Many challenges remain

At present, most traditional fish sauce producers are taking advantage of the sunny days to dry the fish sauce that has been ripened after nearly a year of fermentation to prepare for the Tet holiday. Ms. Chinh, owner of Quang Chinh fish sauce production facility in Phu Loi (Hoang Mai town) said that every year, when this period lasts until Tet, the market demand increases sharply, so the facility has to hire more workers to pack the goods. On average, each year, the facility salts over 100 tons of fish, producing more than 7,000 liters of pure fish sauce. The facility's revenue in previous years reached 500 million VND/year. However, like many other fish sauce production facilities, Ms. Chinh is also a bit worried, because after the incident of wrong information (published by Vinastas) about traditional fish sauce, although it has been corrected, the amount of goods exported has decreased compared to before.

Drying the fish sauce to ensure uniform quality. Photo: Thanh Thuy

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Xan - Head of Phu Loi fish sauce village, it is only a "temporary" difficulty, "the upright tree is not afraid of dying standing". Quynh Di fish sauce products are still welcomed and trusted by consumers. The biggest concern is that the organization of fish sauce production according to the craft village model is facing internal difficulties. It is a collective brand, but each person does it on their own, households that find customers to consume produce a lot, while there are households that only keep a few jars and pots to ferment fish sauce. Therefore, the connection between households producing in the craft village, although sharing a common brand, is loose, not creating strength in competition. The craft village management board is also concerned with promoting products but lacks funds; meanwhile, the craft village does not have the facilities to collect fish sauce from households for preservation, bottling... This is also a common difficulty of most traditional fish sauce villages.

As for some traditional fish sauce production and seafood processing companies in the province, such as: Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company, Quynh Luu Seafood Joint Stock Company, Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company... have made many efforts in diversifying products, improving the design of bottles and cans for packaging products. At the same time, they have increased participation in fairs, customer conferences, product promotion, and finding more customers. Although there are export products such as Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company or products associated with the tourism market such as Nghe An Seafood Joint Stock Company and Hai Giang 1 craft village, but overall, traditional fish sauce in the province still faces many difficulties in competing with the same product line of companies in the South, especially with industrial fish sauce.

Taking advantage of the sunshine, people in Phu Loi fish sauce village dry the fermented fish sauce.

The difficulties in increasing the value and expanding the market of traditional fish sauce production have not been resolved, but Vinastas has published false information about arsenic index. In a comment posted publicly on social networks, Mr. Pham Xuan Can - Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology wrote: "... traditional fish sauce is struggling to resolve when it immediately encounters this "arsenic crisis"! Some supermarkets have immediately removed traditional fish sauce labels from the shelves, some distributors and consumers have brought fish sauce to return to the manufacturers. Not to mention, businesses and fish sauce villages in the Central provinces are also threatened with extinction by the marine environmental disaster. There are no fish to make fish sauce, and it is difficult to sell the fish sauce. What a misfortune!"

Immediately after the incident, the Ministry of Health and relevant agencies cleared the case, affirming that 100% of the tested samples of traditional fish sauce were safe. Now, many supermarkets and stores have re-sold traditional fish sauce products and consumers have somewhat returned to this quintessential product. However, the passing of the "tornado" has made traditional fish sauce even more difficult when it is trying to affirm its position. According to Mr. Vo Van Dai - Director of Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company: "We believe in the wisdom of consumers. But the recent false information has made consumers confused and no one has taken responsibility for the damage to the traditional fish sauce industry!"...

The traditional fish sauce market is assessed to be gradually warming up as the volume of goods increases as Tet approaches according to the law. This not only affects traditional fish sauce producers but also has great significance for fishermen who fish far from the sea. Therefore, in order for the traditional fish sauce industry to develop, craft villages need more support from all levels and sectors to both solve internal difficulties and affirm their position and expand the market.

Nguyen Son - Nguyen Thanh Thuy