With around 2 weeks to go to the Tet Festival, many of the fish sauce makers in the Nam O Village in Da Nang’s Lien Chieu District are very busy completing the final production stages of filtering, bottling, and labelling.

The family of 58-year-old Ngo Hiep from the district’s Nam O 2 hamlet is a typical example.  He said that his product is made from long-jawed anchovies with a high protein content.  He remarked that between 500 and 600 litres of dipping sauce will be sold in the days leading up to Tet, double the volume of sales on normal days.

Vats of fish sauce at a production facility

The Deputy Director of the Dong Hai Fish Sauce Production and Seafood Processing Cooperative, Mr Tran Ngoc Vinh, said that the village is home to 3 cooperatives with about 110 fish sauce-making families.  They produce between 60,000 and 70,000 litres in total every year.  About 30,000 litres are available to supply local customers for this year’s festival, with the remainder in production for sale during the rest of the year.  The village’s finished product usually takes 12 months to produce.

Although the sauce makers found it very hard to source the raw materials last year, the price of their product for Tet remains unchanged at 60,000 VND per litre.  However, they can enjoy great benefits after deducting their production costs.

Mrs Le Thi Luu, also from the Nam O 2 hamlet, said proudly that her village’s fish sauce has won the trust of customers countrywide.  Apart from the city’s traditional markets, local producers also receive many orders from other localities across the country including Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Noi, and Hai Phong.

Over recent years, the district authorities have spent around 80 million VND on printing labels, making glass display cabinets, and painting signboards to facilitate local fish sauce makers to display their products at fairs in the city and nationwide.

In addition, the Centre for Industry Promotion and Technology Transfer Support, part of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, has provided 30 million VND of funding for the manufacture of bottle molds and 6,000 sample bottles for the local fish sauce makers. 

In an attempt to expand the production capacity of the village, 2 dedicated production facilities will soon be built in the district and 2 training courses on how to make fish sauce will be opened for local young people. 

The district authorities will work with some tourism service providers, such as the Ba Na Hills Resort and the Hai Van rest-stop, to further advertise the Nam O fish sauce product to domestic and foreign visitors at these venues.