In these days, mat households business in Dinh Yen handicraft village in Lap Vo District of the Mekong Delta Province of Dong Thap are bustling for making the product to provide for the local market. Dinh Yen village has sustained its traditional mat-making craft for a century. The village has created mats for domestic supplies and exports.
An owner of a mat business household, Nguyen Thi Loi, said that laborers have been busy with selection of sedge strands, which are sun-dried before going into a hot dye, and weaving mats as the establishment sells 1,000 mats of various kinds to traders. She has even bought mat of other small-scale production facilities to have enough mat for daily delivery to traders.
Mats are consumed well in Tet holiday previous years, she said. This year, due to impact of Covid-19, sale of mat is not as strong as before, she shared. Laborers of nowadays make mats quickly with weaving machine though some people still prefer to make the mats by hand to create the complicated patterns on them. .
Deputy chairwoman of the People’s Committee in Dinh Yen Commune Huynh Thi Kim Cuong said that the mat weaving was formed in the handicraft village long ago and it was recognized as an intangible national heritage by the government in September, 2013. The village is home to around 4,000 households and half of the households live on mat weaving from generation to generation. It also creates employment for local rural laborers.
In these days, Nho (Small) islet in the Mekong Delta Province of An Giang’s Phu Tan District has been hustling with traders and laborers. The small islet is the home of craftsmen who make brooms. Household businesses are looking for laborers to make more broom for Tet holiday market. Local Nguyen Ngoc An said that despite the coronavirus pandemic, brooms have been largely consumed.
Thirty laborers are working for An’s house with average daily income of VND200,000 (US$8.6). Each day, workers of his business household make thousands of brooms. In addition to local sale, An and other enterprises export brooms to some countries. For Tet holidays, he planned to supply 20,000 brooms each VND15,000- VND20,000 for the domestic market.
Along roadside in coastal town Cai Doi Vam in Ca mau Province’s Phu Tan District, locals rushed to make dried fish for Tet holiday market. An owner of a household business establishment said that because of Covid-19 impact, there has been a relative decline in sales of dried fish compared to last year. However, he still hoped that the market will be better later.
Chairman of the People’s Committee in Cai Doi Vam Town To Truong Son said that over 40 households in the town make dried fish especially khoai fish which has been certified.
For the last time, local administrations have often paid visits to food business establishments to raise owners’ awareness of food safety for consumers’ health protection and for the establishment’s fame.
Lately, dried shrimp and phong tom food, a kind of snack made of shrimp, have become one of favorite food; therefore, production facilities in Ca Mau Province continued improving package and quality of the product.
Owner Mai Sau of Vinh Hoa Phat facility in Nam Can District in Ca Mau Province said that shoppers have been placing more orders; specifically, his establishment supplies 400-500 kilogram of phong tom snack while orders are expected to increase more in the next month.
To ensure food safety , Mr. Sau said that he has carefully selected material and invested in machine ; subsequently, his products have been displayed in big supermarkets such as Co.opmart, Big C, and Aeon besides exports.
