Promoting the value of craft villages

In Thai Nguyen province, there are currently 277 recognized traditional craft villages. Not only contributing to honoring typical and traditional products, craft villages also create jobs and stable income for many rural workers.

Tea production according to safe processes is being applied in most tea villages of the province.

Thai Nguyen currently has 184 tea villages, the remaining few are handicraft and flower growing villages (compared to 2020, there has been an increase of 25 traditional craft villages). It is worth mentioning that some craft villages in the province are 50, 60, or even nearly 100 years old and people are still attached to the profession.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Chairman of Khe Mo Commune People's Committee (Dong Hy), the most basic reason for people to stick with the craft village is the ability to create jobs and stable income. In particular, through the craft village, people have connections, learn from each other's production experiences...

As Mr. Hung shared, traditional craft villages are increasingly promoting their value. For example, Tien Phong Traditional Tea Village, Khe Mo Commune, is 60 years old. Starting with only 24 households, up to now, this craft village has nearly 150 households and 100% of households participate in tea production. The largest household has nearly 2 hectares of tea, the smallest household has over 5 sao of tea. From tea production, at least 250 to 400 people here have jobs, stable income, and a prosperous life (on average, 1 sao of tea gives an income of about 20 million VND/year).

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam, one of the good tea producers in the Craft Village, shared: Having been attached to tea for more than 30 years, having gone through ups and downs when the selling price of products dropped, I am very happy that Tien Phong Traditional Tea Craft Village is growing more and more. What makes me and many other households most satisfied is that since being recognized as a traditional craft village (more than 16 years ago), connecting to learn production and processing experiences of households in Tien Phong as well as with famous tea craft villages in Tan Cuong (Thai Nguyen City), Trai Cai (Dong Hy) ... has helped the quality of products here to improve day by day, and the selling price is higher.

Not only do they connect together, share production and processing experiences, and participate in the activities of craft villages, but they also gain more knowledge about production management. Ms. Tong Thi Xuyen, Head of the Tea Craft Village Management Board in Trung Thanh 2 Hamlet, Vo Tranh Commune (Phu Luong), said: People in the Craft Village all have diaries to record production activities. Thanks to that, they can manage the input and output of products to ensure safety procedures, reasonable prices, and profitable sales to the market, and their lives are increasingly improved.

In fact, craft villages and traditional craft villages in Thai Nguyen are promoting their own values. In particular, artisans are encouraged and motivated to improve their skills and pass on their skills to the next generation; improve the effectiveness of state management of rural industries, contributing to the implementation of the National Target Program on New Rural Development...

However, the province’s traditional craft villages are still facing many difficulties such as: Products are not highly competitive, the consumer market is unstable. People in craft villages still have to “swim” to find outlets for their products. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nam said: My family has to proactively find outlets for their products, even through social networking platforms, through referrals from customers…

Therefore, in addition to organizing competitions to gather artisans to spread good experiences in production and improve product quality, it is very necessary for the province to pay attention to developing craft villages associated with tourism and eco-tourism development. This will not only promote the sustainable value of craft villages but also solve the problem of rural people leaving their hometown to work far away.

Source: https://baothainguyen.vn/kinh-te/202503/phat-huy-gia-tri-cac-lang-nghe-d65309d/