Looking forward to sunny days

I arrived at Thu Duong craft village just as it was getting dark and visited Nguyen Thi Thu Hien's household. Inviting me into the house, Hien did not forget to urge her children to quickly pack noodles for customers waiting in the yard. Her husband was not home yet because he was busy delivering goods to customers in Hai Phong city.

Product packaging at the Nam The Chu Noodle Production and Trading Cooperative.

Hien's family not only produces traditional white noodles but also makes high-quality five-colour noodles from brown rice and white rice mixed with vegetables, tubers, and fruits for colors. 

For this Tet (Lunar New Year), her family provides customers with about 10 tons of noodles of all kinds. Most of them are high quality noodles with the wholesale price at home ranging from 35,000-55,000 VND (1.43-2.24 USD per kg). In addition to producing and shipping products to customers herself, Hien purchases noodles from a number of households in the village to ensure supplies.

Leaving Hien's house, I went to Pham Van Cuong, Director of the Cuong Be Noodle Cooperative. Cuong said: "The cooperative currently has 10 members. On average, each household produces 170 kg of noodles a day. For Tet, many customers place orders, so the total output doubles compared to last month. Therefore, my family and other households in the cooperative have to cut an pack noodles at night, reserving daytime for grinding flour and making rice papers”.

The morning dew is yet dissipated but Thu Duong craft village is already bustling with the sounds of milling flour, making rice papers, and calling each other to bring products to the yard for drying. 

Dipping rice papers into hot water before slicing them into noodles.

To improve productivity and product quality, more than 20 households in the village bought automatic boilers and some other equipment, replaced coal and wood with gas or electricity. The cost of each production line ranges from 100-300 million VND (4,080-12,240 USD), but in return, each machine's productivity increases 10 times compared to the manual method (about 600 kg of rice per day), and the noodles are thick, evenly cooked, chewy and delicious. Food hygiene and safety are guaranteed and environmental pollution is minimized.

Over the past time, the Center for Industrial Extension and Trade Promotion under the Department of Industry and Trade has financed seven noodle production machines and equipment for households here with a total cost of 1.1 billion VND (44,890 USD).

For Chu rice noodles to reach far

After walking around the craft village, Cuong took me to the house of Thu Duong village head Nguyen Van Nam, who is also Director of the Nam The Chu Noodle Production and Trading Cooperative.

Many households invest tens of millions of Vietnamese dong to build noodle drying yards.

Nam said that Thu Duong village has more than 360 households, with 278 producing noodles, creating jobs for nearly 1,000 workers. Currently, Nam Duong commune has 16 3-star One Commune Once Product (OCOP) products, including 12 in Thu Duong craft village, which are rice noodles. In 2023, the total output of rice noodles produced by the craft village reached nearly 10,000 tonnes, an increase of more than 2,000 tonnes compared to 2022.

The noodles have been consumed in all cities and provinces nationwide and exported to a number of international markets such as China, Malaysia, Japan, Russia, the EU, the Republic of Korea and Cambodia.

Nguyen Thi Thu Hien and her children pack noodles.

At this time, the craft village produces about 40 tonnes of noodles a day, an increase of 30% compared to normal days, but it is not enough to meet the needs of customers for Tet. The reason why noodle consumption is increasing is improving quality of Chu rice noodles. The craft village’s products and brand have been actively promoted by the locality with product packaging continuously renovated, creating trust among consumers.

Along with lychee, orange, and grapefruit, rice noodles is also a spearhead for local economic development. “Chu rice noodles” is currently a specialty and brand of Luc Ngan district and Bac Giang province, which is famous throughout the country. Noodle production contributes to eliminating hunger, reducing poverty and enriching many families.

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