Nguyen Thi Kieu Anh adds more flavours to Chu rice noodle

Updated: 15:13, 27/12/2020

(BGO)- When I was talking to Director of Dau Anh Chu rice Noodle Cooperative Nguyen Thi Kieu Anh (born in 1986) in Canh village, Nam Duong commune, Luc Ngan district, her phone continuously rang. Our talk was interrupted by her customers’ phone call to order the products.

Their vegetable rice noodle products are sold out right after each production.

We visited Kieu Anh’s family at weekend when we were impressed by the 400-square metre ground filled with well-arrange mats of rice noodles in different colors such as green, violet, orange, red, pink, yellow and black.

Born and grown up in the rice - noodle craft village, Kieu Anh always thinks about how to improve the value of rice noodle products. In 2019, she decided to leave her job at the post office of Nam Duong commune to spend full time for the craft to continue the ancestor’s business.

Nguyen Thi Kieu Anh introduces the Cooperative’s products

With the initiative to produce rice noodle with diversified colors and good quality, Kieu Anh tried mixing types of vegetable with rice. For a good quality product, she chose Bao thai hong (a variety of rice) and fresh veggies with clear origin.

The white good rice is soaked overnight until they became soft. Then, veggies are peeled and ground with a blender or crushed and filtered for the colored water. After that, the rice will be soaked in the colored water from 1 to 2 hours in appropriate proportion. This mixture will be ground into soft flour.

Vegetable noodle drying area of Nguyen Thi Kieu Anh’s family

Kieu Anh has to get up very early in the morning to make rice sheets from the flour mixture. Rice sheets are then dried in the sun. The rice sheets can get mold and discolored in bad weather. The vegetable noodle should not be dried with a dryer because it will badly affect the quality and colors of the product. At the beginning, she had to remove many failed rice sheets and noodles.

Each type of veggies mixed with rice will create noodle products of different colors. For example, we will get yellow noodle with turmeric, orange with baby jackfruit, dark green with butterfly pea flower, pink with beetroot, green with moringa leaves, and pale brown with sesame, cashew and brown rice.

The new product was brought to the competent agencies for testing and granted certificate of food safety and hygiene. Each kilo of the product costs about 60,000 VND (2.6 USD). Kieu Anh’s family supplies from 7 to 10 tonnes of noodle to the market each month depending on weather conditions.

In order to establish trademark of the vegetable noodle, Kieu Anh called other households in Canh village to join the Cooperative. Dau Anh Chu rice noodle Cooperative was established in early 2020 with 10 member households and more than 200 collaborators nationwide. Currently, vegetable noodle is supplied to many provinces and city in Vietnam such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, Quang Ninh , Hai Phong, Binh Duong and Dong Nai.

The production facility of Kieu Anh’s family creates stable jobs for 5 local labourers with an average income from 5 to 7 million VND (217 to 304 USD) per month.

Currently, vegetable noodle is supplied to many provinces and city in Vietnam such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, Quang Ninh , Hai Phong, Binh Duong and Dong Nai. The production facility of Kieu Anh’s family creates stable jobs for 5 local labourers with an average income from 5 to 7 million VND (217 to 304 USD) per month.

“Thanks to encouragement of my parents and husband, I have confidently produced vegetable noodles and gained initial good results. I concentrate on researching and creating products while Dau (my husband) takes in charge of business registration procedures, connecting other members and obtaining support of the local government”, said Kieu Anh.

Vegetable noodle is a new product; hence, Kieu Anh defined new approach to the market penetration. She makes use of social networks and online sales platforms such as Facebook, zalo and shopee to promote their products. The veggie noodles are sold out right after each production.

Noodle making has become a both familiar and strange craft for her that she always tries her best to create more eye-catching and qualified vegetable noodle products and attract more customers. When mentioning Chu noodle, consumers must remember not only normal rice noodle but also colorful vegetable noodle products.

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