Hoa Nhon rice paper craft village "races" with Tet

08:27, January 11, 2024

These days, Hoa Nhon rice paper craft village (Ea Bar commune, Buon Don district) is busy "racing" with orders to serve market demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year.

Since the 80s of the last century, people from Binh Dinh province migrated to settle in Ea Bar commune and brought with them the traditional rice paper making profession left by their ancestors.

In the new land, through many difficulties and ups and downs, many people in Ea Bar commune still maintain the traditional profession and pass it on to the next generation. From small rice paper making households, the scale has grown to hundreds of households and constantly improved both the quality and design of the products according to market demand. Thanks to that, the rice paper making profession here has now built a brand and has a certain position in the market inside and outside the province.

The time before Lunar New Year is considered the busiest period of the year for Hoa Nhon rice paper village when market demand increases many times higher than normal.

People in Hoa Nhon rice paper village are busy drying rice paper.

With more than 30 years of experience making rice paper in Hoa Nhon rice paper craft village, Mr. Nguyen Van Lau (village 7) said that currently, due to the high number of orders, his family's oven is running at full capacity to meet market demand. At exactly 4:00 a.m. every day, the family starts work by preparing the raw materials so that at 5:00 a.m., nearly 20 workers arrive to start the steps of coating, drying, collecting, packaging the finished products and ending the working day at around 11:00 p.m. On a normal day, the oven coats about 500 kg of raw materials, but at this time, each day coats about 1 ton of raw materials.

Similarly, in the past, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngọt's family (village 8) had a lot of difficulties. Thanks to the Ea Bar commune government's support in borrowing capital to invest in building a rice paper oven, and the support and guidance from the villagers on production, his family now has "food and savings". In 2017, Mr. Ngọt boldly invested in a rice paper making machine system and hired more local workers to produce in order to expand the consumption market. Mr. Ngọt said that from now until Lunar New Year, his family is expected to make about 600-700 kg of raw materials per day, double the normal amount.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lau's rice paper oven (village 7, Ea Bar commune) must operate at full capacity.

Not only Mr. Lau and Mr. Ngọt's family, but most of the rice paper kilns in Hoa Nhon rice paper village are currently operating from dawn to late at night to meet the needs of customers. Near the Lunar New Year, when the rice paper kilns run at full capacity, it is also the time when people in the commune have an additional source of income when participating in the cake making process. With 200,000 VND/person/day (not including overtime pay), this is a significant source of income for people to have more conditions to take care of their families to have a more fulfilling Tet.

Ea Bar Commune Farmers' Association President Tran Thi Phuong Lan shared that there are currently more than 100 households participating in the rice paper production craft village in Ea Bar Commune. After decades of formation and development, Hoa Nhon rice paper craft village has a brand name, a stable consumption market, many households have escaped poverty from rice paper making and solved the employment needs of many local workers. In the coming time, the Commune Farmers' Association will guide people to establish a Cooperative Group in production and diversify rice paper products, serving many customers, and proceed to complete procedures for Hoa Nhon village rice paper products to become OCOP products (One Commune One Product Program) of the locality.

Thuy Dung

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