Compass Travel Vietnam
A place where women heat the kitchen and dry in the sun to create cakes that bring in 4.5 billion VND each year
Vinh Duc craft village in Do Luong, Nghe An is famous for its sesame rice paper products, exported abroad. Especially, 80% of the workers in the craft village are women with weak legs and soft hands.
Craft villages are 80% female workers, with a turnover of 4.5 billion VND/year (Video: Hoang Lam).
Vinh Duc craft village (Do Luong town, Do Luong district, Nghe An) is nearly 300 hundred years old, famous for its sesame rice paper and peanut candy products.
According to statistics, the craft village currently has 60 households, creating regular jobs for 245 local workers , of which about 80% are female workers.
70% of Vinh Duc craft village households specialize in producing sesame rice paper, the remaining households produce peanut candy.
From a traditional product, in January 2022, Vinh Duc sesame rice cake was recognized as a 3-star OCOP product (one commune one strength product). With its own secret, Vinh Duc sesame rice cake has a unique flavor that is difficult to mix with similar products of other craft villages.
The typical flavor of Do Luong sesame rice cake is created from mixing ingredients, with a certain ratio according to the secret of each producing household.
According to Ms. Dinh Thi Hong (36 years old), who has more than 20 years of experience, to make rice paper, choosing ingredients is the most important. The rice used to make cakes is Khang Dan rice, ground into fresh flour, that is, grind until it is coated. You must choose good sesame seeds, the seeds are round, firm, heavy, and the skin is thin.
To create flavor for the rice paper, the factories grind garlic, pepper, seasoning… mixed into the flour mixture before being coated.
Every day, Ms. Hong uses 30kg of ingredients and gets 1,000 rice cakes. “The cake is made entirely by hand, so the productivity cannot compete with the machine,” said Ms. Hong.
Mr. Vo Quang Hoang – an officer of the People’s Committee of Do Luong town, in charge of Vinh Duc craft village – said that there are currently 10 households making rice paper on a large scale, investing in an automatic cake coating system. However, half of craft village households are maintaining manual production methods.
“On average, each household produces about 1,500 pieces of rice paper per day. In 2022, the revenue from Vinh Duc craft village’s rice paper products will reach more than 4.5 billion VND,” said Mr. Vo Quang Hoang.
Along with traditional black sesame rice paper products, Mrs. Dinh Thi Chung’s household (Vinh Duc craft village) also produces gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper. The cakes have beautiful colors and designs and have higher production costs, so the selling price is 1.5 times higher than black sesame cakes.
After being cooked, the rice paper is spread on a bamboo mat and exposed to the sun. Temperature and drying time will affect the quality of the cake.
During the drying process, the assistants must continuously turn the cake to ensure it dries evenly and has beautiful color. Currently, Vinh Duc rice paper is sold for 2,000 VND/piece unbaked, while baked ones are priced at 2,500 VND/piece.
The cake is dried at a temperature of 30-37 degrees Celsius. At around 10am-11am, when the cake dries evenly on both sides, it must be collected quickly because if left to “old in the sun” the cake will crack, break, warp…
Having to bask in the sun, plus the heat from the concrete yard is an unpleasant experience. Workers must wear thick coats or layers, conical hats, masks, gloves to protect against the hot sun, in addition, the operation must be fast to make the cake turn evenly.
Ms. Tran Thi Lan has worked for 7 years at rice paper factories. Ms. Lan’s wages, like many other workers, are paid according to the nature of the job.
“If you only dry cakes, collect cakes, arrange cakes, the salary is 130,000 VND / session, work from about 6 am to 11 am daily, in the afternoon off. Every day on duty to make cakes, you will be paid 50,000 VND more”, Ms. Lan said.
When collecting cakes, the worker will take the whole sheet, load it on a cart and put it in the warehouse. The cake will be removed from the rack and cooled slowly.
Working in the hot sun causes many workers to quickly lose strength and become tired. In return, this job works 30 days/month, helping them have a stable income.
Banh da is raw or grilled depending on the customer’s request. Unlike bread-dryers, bakers always have to sit next to the glowing coal stove, regardless of winter or summer.
The heat from the coal basin in the middle of summer forced workers to wear protective equipment for the face, hands, knees and shins. 2 electric fans running at full capacity only help them dispel the sweltering heat a bit. On average, each worker can bake 1,000-1,500 cakes/day, bringing in a salary of more than 250,000 VND.
Along with its own quality and taste, Vinh Duc’s rice paper products are increasingly diverse in designs and materials, meeting the needs of the market. Currently, Vinh Duc sesame rice cake products are consumed throughout the provinces and cities throughout the country and through an enterprise to export to Taiwan (China), Japan, Korea, England…
($1=24,000 VND)
Photo,Video: Internet (Vinlove.net)
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A place where women heat the kitchen and dry in the sun to create cakes that bring in 4.5 billion VND each year
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