Enhancing OCOP products, contributing to diversifying specialties with dried shrimp and fish

Ms. Pham Thi Bach Thuy introduces her family's spicy dried shrimp production line.

In 2000, Ms. Thuy moved from Can Tho City to Rach Gia City with her husband, a family with a long tradition of making dried shrimp and fish sauce. Putting aside her passion for being a makeup artist, she began to get acquainted with the drying profession, a completely new field.

Realizing that Kien Giang is blessed with abundant seafood resources, in 2005, Ms. Thuy and her husband decided to open a dried anchovy processing facility. By 2006, the facility gradually expanded, in addition to selling domestically, it also processed and exported to China and Southeast Asian countries. "At that time, production was mainly based on customer demand, as long as the color was beautiful and profitable, we would do it. In 2010, when cooperating with a business exporting to Europe, I asked myself: "We make quality products for export, why not make clean products to serve the people of our country?". From then on, I decided to change the direction of production, focusing more on food safety".

Once visiting Tac Cau port (Chau Thanh district), Ms. Thuy saw a lot of fresh bream gathered but most of it was only used as fish fertilizer or animal feed. Feeling sorry for this source of raw materials, Ms. Thuy decided to buy it to process into dried fish. When the finished product was born, she realized that dried bream had a special delicious flavor. However, the difficult problem was the output, no one knew about this product. Not giving up, Ms. Thuy consigned the goods to dried fish stalls in Rach Gia and neighboring provinces, then traveled to Tan Binh district ( Ho Chi Minh City) to sell. However, it was not until 2010 that an export company came to the facility to order dried bream and mai fish. Since then, this product has gradually been produced in large quantities.

In 2015, during a visit to An Bien and An Minh districts to attend a funeral, Ms. Thuy saw that people were having a good shrimp harvest but could not sell it. The shrimp were raised using extensive farming methods, only eating natural food in rice fields, which made her wonder how to take advantage of this valuable source of raw materials. After many failed attempts at drying shrimp at first, after more than a year of experimentation, Ms. Thuy perfected the process of making spicy dried shrimp. For 4 years, the product was only given away and she listened to feedback. Only when she received many compliments and support did she feel confident enough to bring spicy dried shrimp to the market.

"Recognizing the potential for development, I invested billions of dong in the production line. However, machinery is only a supporting factor, the key to making the quality of dried shrimp lies in the source of raw materials," said Ms. Thuy. It must be whiteleg shrimp or black tiger shrimp raised extensively in the saline ecological areas of An Bien and An Minh districts to produce spicy dried shrimp that is chewy, delicious and does not break when rolled. In addition, the drying temperature and the shrimp rolling technique require the skilled worker to be "hard" enough to create a standard product that retains the natural sweetness of the shrimp without the need for flavoring agents or preservatives.

Each batch of spicy dried shrimp must go through 6 stages and takes 12 hours of continuous processing from 6am to 6pm to complete canning. After being cleaned, the fresh shrimp are peeled, their heads are cut off, their veins are removed, and they are marinated with spices and rock salt for 24 hours to absorb evenly before being put into the electric drying oven. The drying process consists of two stages, drying at 115 degrees Celsius for 1 hour then lowering to 40 degrees Celsius to maintain the natural sweetness of the shrimp before being put through the thin-rolling thermal baking system. In 2024, spicy dried shrimp under the Thai Thuy brand will become a hot-selling product that is always "out of stock".

With the support of Farmers' Associations at all levels in the province, in July 2024, Thai Thuy One Member Co., Ltd. had 4 products classified by Rach Gia City People's Committee as 3-star OCOP products including dried perch, dried anchovy, spicy dried shrimp and dried shrimp; supported by the bank with a loan of 5 billion VND to invest in machinery and production materials.

Article and photos: DANG LINH

Source: https://baocantho.com.vn/nang-tam-san-pham-ocop-gop-phan-da-dang-dac-san-voi-tom-ca-say-kho-a185049.html