Five generations in the family of Than Thi Huyen have lived on vermicelli making. She is one of the members in Da Mai Production and Trading Cooperative for Cake, Vermicelli and Safe Agricultural Produce (Cooperative).

The dried vermicelli can be preserved in long time and easily transported to far distance.

She said previously the locals used to make vermicelli in traditional way. Now they invest in machines and equipment for production such as rice washing machine, rice milling machine, pressing tool..., helping save time, reduce production cost, create hi-quality and good looking vermicelli.

Da Mai vermicelli is prominent for its ivory-white, natural viscid and tough which is not sour and crumple in water. Each household can produce 300 – 600 kg of vermicelli everyday, earning benefit of 400 – 600,000 VND (17 – 25 USD) on average. Now the ward is home to more than 100 households earning a living on making this product. They create about 13 – 15 tonnes of vermicelli per day.

The fresh vermicelli only meets the local consumption demand. Due to the short preservation time (normally it is used within a day), it is hard to deliver to far distance or export. Thus, it is the shared expectation to develop new product, recover the shortcoming to expand the market.

According to Chairwoman of the Women’s Union in Da Mai ward Luong Thi Dien and also a member of the Cooperative, she and other members researched and studied together to produce dried vermicelli basing on this expectation.

In 2018, Da Mai dried vermicelli was introduced to the market. The dried vermicelli producing model competed in the Contest “Women’s Startup Idea Contest in Producing and Processing Safe Farm Produce” launched by the provincial Women’s Union and won first prize.

The dried vermicelli of good quality is made thanks to the meticulousness in each stage such as rice selecting and soaking, powder milling and pressing, vermicelli moulding, cooling, separating and drying. The product is dried in suitable time so that it will not be too crunchy (easy to be broken) or too soft (easy to be mildew and loss the fragrant).

The dried vermicelli is ideally to prepare many delicious dishes such as stir frying vermicelli, crab soup vermicelli, fish soup vermicelli, snail soup vermicelli among others. 9 kilogram of dried vermicelli is made from 10 kilogram of rice and sold at around 20 – 30,000 VND (0.86 – 1.29 USD) per kilogram.

The Cooperative now creates dried vermicelli, dried moringa vermicelli and dried brown rice vermicelli to serve a wide range of customer in different size of packages such as 200 gr, 500 gr and 1 kilogram with sufficient label, stamp for origin traceability and time for use.

There are various types of product: dried vermicelli, dried moringa vermicelli and dried brown rice vermicelli.

Though Da Mai dried vermicelli is newly introduced to the market, many customers prefer and order the product. Currently, some 2 tonnes of dried vermicelli are monthly supplied to the orders to the markets in and outside the province including Bac Ninh, Quang Ninh, Ha Noi and others.

According to Ngo Van Lan, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee in Da Mai ward, the competent agencies has focused on trade promotion and exhibition of the dried vermicelli at the women’s startup programmes as well as trade fair, targeting to build the product to qualify with 3 – 4 star of One Commune One Product (OCOP) standard. When meeting the OCOP standard, the product will reach the export opportunity.

Diversifying the craft village products is a new orientation in economic development in Da Mai ward that contributes to preserving the traditional products and helping the local craft men improve the product quality.

100 million VND offered to Women’s Union in Da Mai ward in creative startup contest

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Quang Minh