With around a month to go to the Tet Festival, many of the traditional villages in Da Nang have started to busy themselves, increasing their production capacity for the most important crop of the year.  They include the Tuy Loan rice paper village, the Cam Le kho me (sesame cake) village, and the Nam O fish sauce village.

Mrs Tung’s rice-paper making establishment in Hoa Vang District’s Hoa Phong Commune is a typical example.  Between 1.2 and 1.5 tonnes of rice are usually used to make rice paper for the Tet market every year.  Thanks to this, Mrs Tung makes between 13 and 18 million VND in profit, after deducting her production costs.

Currently, Mrs Tung’s establishment is one of the well-known rice paper makers in the commune thanks to the quality of its products which can be kept for up to 2 months.  Over recent years, despite the increasing number of orders in the days before Tet, she has never increased the price of her products.  Apart from supplying her products to local wholesale markets at between 65,000 and 70,000 VND for 10 pieces, she also takes orders from customers for 10 pieces at between 100,000 VND and 150,000 VND.

Kho me (sesame cake) being made

Another example is the kho me (sesame cake) making establishment under the brand name of ‘Mrs Lieu” in Cam Le District’s Hoa Tho Dong Ward.  The production facility is owned by 60-year-old Huynh Duc Khien who is the youngest son of Mrs Lieu.  Although these days leading up to Tet are the peak time for sales, Mr Khien affirmed that the price of his sesame cakes remains unchanged at 60,000 VND per kg.