A traditional fish sauce processing facility

Mrs. Tran Thi Bong in Phong Hai commune (Phong Dien) was once famous for making fish sauce and shrimp paste to meet the consumption needs of the locality and many neighboring areas. Local seafood sources such as mackerel, rice, duoi... were purchased by Mrs. Bong to ferment and process fish sauce. There was a time when local seafood was not enough for processing, Mrs. Bong had to buy from many other places to make fish sauce to meet the market demand.

There were times when the local shrimp and fish supply was in short supply due to the large number of establishments and households participating in purchasing and processing seafood. The fish sauce and fish sauce of Phong Hai people are delicious and therefore consumed strongly. The local government once registered the trademark and brand of the traditional craft village of Phong Hai fish sauce processing. This local fish sauce was once not only consumed locally and in neighboring areas but also sold in Ho Chi Minh City and exported to several countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia.

In recent years, the local seafood resources in Phong Hai and some coastal areas of Ngu Dien have been unstable, often lacking in supply for processing, so many households and establishments have quit their jobs or limited the production of fish sauce and fish sauce. Recently, while nearshore seafood resources have begun to revive and become abundant, such as mackerel, rice, duoi, and dich..., many fish sauce processing households have quit their jobs, making it difficult for fishermen to sell their products.

Mr. Vo Bac in Hai The village, Phong Hai commune confided that the price and consumption of seafood near the shore are now very unstable. Since the beginning of summer, many fishing trips have continuously caught a lot of mackerel, herring, and shrimp (defective)... but they are mainly sold retail, and fishermen even dump them at very low prices. This is understandable when there are no more fish sauce processing facilities in the locality that buy seafood in large quantities. Many small fish sauce processing and trading households have also greatly limited their output.

Vice Chairman of Phong Hai Commune People's Committee, Mr. Nguyen Trong Tuong informed that the nearshore seafood resources of local fishermen in particular and Ngu Dien in general have long been mainly used for small-scale processing. Due to the unstable nearshore seafood resources in recent times, there were times when the output did not meet the processing needs, so many households abandoned the fishing industry, and households processing fish sauce and fish sauce also abandoned their jobs, or reduced the scale of production.

It can be affirmed that the traditional fish sauce processing profession in Phong Hai and some localities in Ngu Dien has not been lost but is facing many difficulties. According to Mr. Tuong, the local government is propagating and mobilizing people to try to stick with the profession, maintain the traditional fish sauce processing profession of the people for generations to create income and stabilize their lives. At the same time, they are looking for solutions to support and invest in people to maintain and expand the scale of production, processing and Phong Hai fish sauce brand. If the local seafood supply is lacking or unstable, the owners of processing establishments and households can contact to buy in coastal communes such as Thuan An, Phu Thuan, Phu Hai...

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Truong, Head of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Management of the province, informed that Thua Thien Hue province currently has a total aquaculture area of ​​about 7,929 hectares (nearly 6,000 hectares of brackish water farming, nearly 2,000 hectares of freshwater farming) with a total output of about 20 thousand tons. Aquatic and seafood exploitation has an output of about 42 thousand tons. The main source of product consumption is within the province and some neighboring provinces, the export output accounts for a small proportion, mainly consuming fresh products and small-scale seafood processing.

For small and medium-sized processing industries managed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the source of aquatic and seafood raw materials is about 2,500 tons/year. The amount of aquatic and seafood products for processing focuses on the groups of sour shrimp, dried shrimp, fish sauce... and a small amount of dried aquatic products.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Truong assessed that the seafood processing sector in the province is mainly small and medium-sized, concentrated in coastal areas. Export processing activities in general in the province are still modest compared to the national scale. The export situation for enterprises has decreased sharply due to a decrease in orders and a scarcity of raw materials, high prices causing enterprises to remain in a stagnant state.

Not only export enterprises but also facility owners and individual processing households need to access preferential loans to reinvest, expand production and business activities, and access more import markets for local goods. And more than anyone else, it is the localities, facility owners and individual households involved in processing fish sauce, fish sauce and dried seafood products that need to have measures to organize production and consumption in a reasonable and sustainable manner.

Article and photos: Hoang The