Economic development from traditional occupations

With her passion and spirit of overcoming difficulties, Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong (born in 1974), residing in Hamlet 2, Cho Gao Commune, Dong Thap Province, has successfully started a business making handmade noodles - her family's traditional profession. With her skillful hands, she has turned the product "Fresh chewy noodles" into a local OCOP product, creating jobs for many workers, contributing to the development of the rural economy.

Currently, Ms. Phuong's facility provides jobs for 6 workers with an income of 6 - 8 million VND/person/month, depending on the nature of the work and the cake making process. Every day, Ms. Phuong's noodle production facility is always bustling and busy: Some people make rice noodles, others dry, package, and deliver the products to consumers.
PRESERVING TRADITIONAL WORK

Visiting Ms. Kim Phuong's facility, we saw everyone busy finishing the final steps to deliver noodles on time. We started a conversation, Ms. Phuong confided: When mentioning Cho Gao, people immediately think of the land growing dragon fruit, coconut... few people know about the noodle making profession because few people do it, because the income is not high and it is hard work.

Ms. Kim Phuong (left cover) directly participates in the process of cutting rice noodles.

For over 30 years, every day, Ms. Phuong has started her work at 3 a.m. and finished when the sun went down. Hu Tieu is a popular dish, cheap, but the process of making Hu Tieu noodles takes a lot of time and effort.

From the two main ingredients, rice and coarse salt, soaked for a certain period of time and then ground into flour, put the flour into the automatic rice paper making machine, arrange the rice paper on bamboo trays and then dry it in the sun until the rice paper reaches the right dryness level, then put it into the machine to cut it into finished noodles. Ms. Phuong's family mainly makes fresh noodles so they will be delivered immediately after completion. Ms. Phuong said that the noodles dried in the sun will dry slowly so they still retain a certain toughness.

In the past, Ms. Phuong's family did everything by hand. Later, to reduce the difficulty, she used machines to support the rice paper and noodle cutting steps. She said that most of the steps were done by hand and also depended on the weather, so the amount of noodles her family produced each day was often unstable. In addition, the unstable price of rice also affected profits to some extent.

According to Ms. Phuong, to make delicious, chewy noodles, the selection of ingredients is extremely important because it will directly affect the quality of the product. Ms. Phuong shared: I choose local specialty rice to grind into flour and add salt to enhance the flavor. 1 kg of rice will produce about 1.1 kg of noodles. Besides the selection of ingredients, the drying process is also quite important, because it will affect the length and toughness of the noodles.
FROM FAMILY PRODUCTS TO OCOP BRAND

Investing, innovating methods, improving product quality, "sweet fruit" also comes to Ms. Phuong's family. Specifically, Ms. Phuong invested in modern machinery and equipment such as: flour milling machine, flour coating machine, cutting machine to limit human labor, increase product quantity.

At the same time, expanding the production scale, supplying a large quantity of noodles to the market, bringing a stable monthly income. If before, her facility supplied the market from 100 - 200 kg of noodles per day, now, on average, each day is from 500 - 600 kg.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong checks soaked rice.

After a period of efforts to improve product quality, in 2023, Ms. Phuong's family's "Fresh chewy noodles" was honored to be selected as an OCOP product of Cho Gao commune and in 2024, Ms. Phuong's "Fresh chewy noodles" product won the Encouragement Prize in the Creative Women's Startup Ideas Contest, organized by the Women's Union of Tien Giang province (old).

Ms. Phuong excitedly said: This is the motivation for me to continue with this job and invest in improving the quality of the products. In the near future, I will invest in more dryers so that I do not depend on the weather.

Ms. Phuong said: Having modern machines will help reduce the manual process. I invested in building the family's traditional products from form to quality, thanks to which the family's "Fresh chewy noodles" made from rice flour has a certain position in the market.

Nowadays, despite the support of machines, many steps still require the skillful hands of skilled workers, especially the steps of spreading and scooping the cakes. It is the meticulousness in each stage of production that has brought prestige as well as economic efficiency to Ms. Phuong's family.

Ms. Kim Phuong's production facility creates jobs for many workers.

Not only does it help develop the family economy, Ms. Phuong's production facility also creates jobs for many local workers with many stages and stable income. Ms. Huynh Thi Kim Chi, who has been with Ms. Phuong's noodle production facility since the early days, shared: I work here with a stable job, earning about 250-280 thousand VND/day, and Ms. Phuong also supports me with lunch. Thanks to this job, older women like me have a stable source of income to take care of my family.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Trang shared: Every day, I travel more than 10 km from my house in Vinh Binh commune to Ms. Phuong's facility to work. Having a regular job and a stable income, the women here are very happy.

Chairwoman of the Women's Union of Cho Gao Commune, Dang Thi My Hanh, said: Ms. Kim Phuong's noodle production facility is a very effective economic model that can easily help her increase her income, develop the economy and create jobs for a number of local workers.

Over the past time, the Commune Women's Union has always created favorable conditions, supported her family in promoting product brands, designing packaging, supporting capital to invest in modern machinery and equipment, and upgrading production scale. From the traditional profession, Ms. Phuong overcame difficulties to create a brand of OCOP-standard noodles.

In the midst of modern life, when many traditional occupations are gradually disappearing, the story of Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong is a testament to the spirit of daring to think and daring to do of rural women. From batches of noodles with the fragrant smell of new rice, she not only preserves the family's traditional profession but also affirms the value of labor, contributing to spreading the image of industrious and creative Dong Thap women in the homeland of the Land of Pink Lotus.

MORNING

Source: https://baodongthap.vn/kinh-te/202510/phat-trien-kinh-te-tu-nghe-truyen-thong-1051345/