We had the opportunity to visit the Thai Hoan rice noodle production facility of Mr. Nguyen Van Thai's family (Central hamlet, Kha Son commune, Phu Binh district, Thai Nguyen province) when the workers were busy with the production stages. noodle export. The one who extrudes the noodles, the one who washes them, the one who dries them... all hands and feet.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thai (Central hamlet, Kha Son commune, Phu Binh district, Thai Nguyen province) has started making rice noodles since 2021. Photo: Ha Thanh
Sharing about the process of getting into the noodle making business today, Mr. Thai said: From 2021 onwards, his family mainly raised pigs in large quantities. However, in 2021, due to the epidemic, his family suffered heavy losses. No longer having capital to maintain livestock farming, he decided to switch to a production model of making rice noodles. The reason is because he realized that this job does not require much capital, can actively work in the family, and is not as risky as raising livestock.
In the beginning, Mr. Thai's family often learned production methods from households that had previous experience making noodles. During the first 3 months of operation, there were many unsuccessful times. However, after a period of time in production, while working and gradually learning from experience, the family's products have now been popular with many customers.
The rice used to make noodles is carefully selected and milled by Mr. Thai. Photo: Ha Thanh
To make delicious noodle products, according to Mr. Thai, choosing rice ingredients is extremely important. Rice when milled must meet standards, white rice, not mixed and Khang Dan rice.
After choosing good quality rice, the rice will be soaked for 2 - 3 hours. The rice is then put into a machine to grind it into powder, then bag it and press it. When the dough has had enough time as prescribed, put it into the extruder to make noodles.
In the next step, the noodles are incubated for about 15 hours (winter) and 20 hours (summer), then spread in bags, covered with tarpaulin, then soaked in a water tank to loosen the noodles. Next, the noodles are exposed to the sun to dry.
“If the weather is sunny, the drying time lasts about 4-6 hours. If the weather is rainy, the noodles will be put into a hot oven for about 10 hours to dry" - Mr. Thai said.
The noodles are dried in natural conditions for 4-6 hours to dry. Photo: Ha Thanh
According to Mr. Thai, the most favorable weather for making noodles is October of the year because at this time the weather is dry, with little rain. At that time, noodles are dried mainly by wind, so the noodles will be more beautiful and delicious. with exposure to sunlight.
Mr. Thai said that making noodles also takes a lot of time, but is not difficult, so you just need to be diligent and meticulous to do it. In particular, for people like him and his wife who are past working age and cannot work for companies, they stay at home making noodles, farming, and raising ducks and chickens. To spend.
Currently, on average every day, Mr. Thai's family produces 4-5 quintals of noodles, and on days when the weather is not favorable, his family only produces about 2 quintals.
Currently, Mr. Thai's family sells noodles wholesale for 22.000 VND/kg and retails for 24.000 VND/kg. Thus, according to calculations, after deducting expenses, his family's profit is about 3.000 VND/kg of noodles. Currently, in addition to the Thai Nguyen market, Mr. Thai's family's rice noodle products are being sold to a number of provinces and cities such as Yen Bai, Binh Thuan... to agents and regular customers who place orders.
The noodles are sold wholesale by Mr. Thai's family for 22.000 VND/kg and retailed for 24.000 VND/kg. Photo: Ha Thanh
To meet production needs, Mr. Thai's family is using 3 workers to make noodles. The average income of workers reaches 6 - 7 million VND/person/month.
It is planned that in the near future, Mr. Thai's family will move the production location to the street, thereby expanding the scale of production to meet the demand for goods to serve the market.
According to Mr. Thai, compared to his family's previous livestock raising, the current noodle making business does not require much capital but has a stable income, without worrying about risks or losses. Therefore, his family plans to stick with this job for a long time.
