Currently, seeking new consumer consumption markets for Da Nang-made typical rural industrial products still faces many challenges and difficulties.

Many businesses are now proactive to promote technological innovations to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of their partners as well as the latest development trend market. Bustling working atmosphere is seen at the Nguyen Quang Minh Candle Co., Ltd.

According to the municipal Trade and Industrial Promotion Centre, 24 locally-made products have to date been recognised as the city’s typical rural industrial products. The selection of these products is based on main criteria such as meeting the market demand, product development capability, environmental protection, and competitiveness.

As newer generations turn away from the country’s hallmark crafts, there are still special practitioners in Da Nang who have been fighting in a silent manner to revive their time-honoured traditional crafts handed down through historical periods by their predecessors.

In 2016, ‘banh kho me’ (dried sesame seed cakes) developed by Ba Lieu family was recognised as one of the 10 typical rural industrial products in Da Nang.

Possessing the time-honoured brand name promoted for many decades, ‘banh kho me’ has become a familiar product in the city’s market, with 80% of the production output being on sale in many stores and shops, the airport, restaurants and large hotels across the city. In particular, large numbers of domestic and foreign tourists usually buy this delicacy as souvenir gifts for their relatives and friends as they return home.

Mr Huynh Duc Sol, the manager of the ‘Ba Lieu Me’ ‘banh kho me’ making establishment, said, in an attempt to expand consumer consumption markets, his facility has in recent years conducted varous promotion programmes at the neighboring provinces of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam, and also actively participated in trade promotion fairs in Thailand and Laos.

Another heed has been paid to renewing the designs as well as adjusting the cake’s flavour to satisfy the general tastes of customers who gradually prefer to traditional products with a moderate sweetness.

Despite doing business effectively and building brand in a stable manner, expanding the consumer consumption markets and lifting the production scale to a higher level is still an arching problem for his facility.

“Recently, we have negotiated with a few supermarkets in the city to put goods on shelves, but our attempt has not been successful due to low product consumption and high shelving costs.”, complained Mr Sol.

The problem facing ‘Ba Lieu’ is now the same for other typical rural industrial producers. Most of the locally-made traditional products are made on a small scale and semi-processed. Still worse, because of their limited financial sources, these establishments couldnot afford to purchase modern production lines, hereby failing to meet the stricter requirements of buyers or bring products to supermarkets.

Another obstacle is the ongoing unfair competition with the arrival of fake and counterfeit goods. Mr Nguyen Xuan Son, the Director of the city-based Huong Que Production-Processing-Import Export Trading Company, pointed out to the fact that, many businesses have always spent their money and efforts to build brands. However, once their products make their debuts, counterfeit products prevail in the local market with their lower prices. This is an arching situation facing many businesses specialising in making typical rural industrial products.

Meanwhile, in order to stabilise and expand their operations, many businesses are proactive to promote technological innovations to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of their partners as well as the latest development trend market.

Established in 1999, the city-based Nguyen Quang Minh Candle Co., Ltd, one of the rare rural industrial production units to achieve success in the export of decorative candle products, has successfully conquered such fastidious markets as the US, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

By late this year, the company- generated turnover will likely to have reached an estimate of 5 million US$, and this figure is expected to stand at more than 5.5 million US$ next year.

The company's product is one of Da Nang’s 14 typical rural industrial products in 2019.

In order to enhance its competitiveness, the company has taken the initiative in sourcing high quality raw material from Malaysia, Germany, and France. At the same time, heed has been paid to constantly diversifying models and forms of products with the principle of keeping consumers' health a top priority.