Selling boiled corn along the highway earns half a million a day

Over the past few years, stalls selling boiled corn have become familiar on Highway 7 through Hamlet 1, Tuong Son Commune. Photo: Huu Vi

These are all corn-growing households in Hamlet 1, Tuong Son Commune. Each household has a few acres of corn and is in the process of harvesting young corn. The work of the farming households starts from dawn to late afternoon. All they need is an umbrella or a temporary tent right at their gate to have a stall selling boiled corn to welcome customers. A military pot of smoke billows, emitting a fragrant aroma on a red-hot stove.

Ms. Hoang Thi Tham considers selling boiled corn as an additional source of income for her family. Photo: Huu Vi

Ms. Hoang Thi Tham, a boiled corn seller in Hamlet 1, Tuong Son Commune, said: “My family has 2 sao of corn and boils it for sale at harvest time. Every day we sell 200 to 300 ears of corn. Selling it to increase our family income, we grow 3 crops of corn like this every year. It is easy to sell in the cold season, but in the hot season there are very few buyers.”

According to the corn sellers here, on weekdays, the buyers are mainly passersby, buying only 5 to 10 flowers, sometimes a few dozen. The most sales are on weekdays and weekends. On weekends, there are tour groups passing by who buy in large quantities to eat on the way, and on weekdays, students and civil servants go to school or work to buy a lot as gifts.

In winter, pots of boiled corn by the roadside become attractive. Photo: Huu Vi

Not only selling boiled corn, each stall also has raw corn available for customers who want to buy it to boil at home. Each corn ear, whether raw or boiled, costs 2,000 VND. There are regular customers in Vinh City who import 300 to 500 corn ears every day, transported by passenger buses from early morning. Thus, after deducting all expenses, each day they earn 400 to 600 thousand VND - Ms. Tham added.

Women boiling corn and selling it on the roadside make the winter atmosphere less cold. Photo: Huu Vi

All day long, dozens of stalls stretching nearly 1 km were filled with smoke rising from pots of corn. Realizing that the business was quite profitable, many households here set up stoves to boil corn right next to the road.

However, people waving down carts selling corn along the road and buses and motorbikes suddenly stopping to buy goods are very dangerous and pose a potential traffic accident.

Xuan Thuy