These days, craft villages and food production facilities are busy churning out large amounts of goods for supply to people for year-end shopping and consumption and the traditional Vietnamese Lunar New Year (Tet holiday), which falls on January 22.

Yen Tien production facility is busy producing a large amount of beef paste in supply for the market on days leading to Tet. Photo: L.V

As every year, at the beginning of December, Quang Chau sesame dry cake craft village in Quang Chau Village, Hoa Chau Commune, Hoa Vang District begins the biggest production season of the year for consumption all over the country.

At Mrs Nghi’s dry sesame cake making facility, 10 employees are actively engaged in processing products. Sitting by the fire to bake cakes, Ms Nghi, the owner of the establishment, said that there are many types of cakes with beautiful designs available on the market, but the traditional handmade sesame cakes are still popular thanks to their distinctive tastes.

On days ahead of Tet, workers embark upon making cakes at 2 a.m. to produce more than 700 new cakes every day to meet growing consumption demand.

These days in the buildup to Tet, the Tuy Loan ‘banh trang’ (rice paper) craft village in Hoa Phong Commune, Hoa Vang District is now gearing up production to fulfill orders for year-end parties, weddings and other occasions.

In reality, the village is famous for being delicious and chewy, and said to taste better than all others. The production involves making powder, rolling and drying. Modern drying technologies are widely used in many craft villages, but the Tuy Loan Village still retains the traditional way of drying it under the sun in natural wind.

In this village, artisans make them without preservatives or additives to ensure safety and hygiene, and frown on modern technologies, preferring to dry it naturally, which they say is the secret to making it more crispy and fragrant.

Nguyen Dang Thai Hoa, the owner of Tuy Phong rice paper factory, shared: “My establishment only produces special sesame rice paper, although the price is higher than ordinary one, the delicious taste is always much preferred by customers. On a normal day, the establishment only produces about 160 cakes for sales within 2-3 days.

However, starting in December, the demand increased significantly, the establishment’s staff had to work at full capacity with the quantity of more than 300 cakes per day to complete the orders 3 days ahead of Tet.

At the Yen Tien ‘cha bo’ (beef paste) production facility in Hoa Son Commune, Hoa Vang District, workers are busy processing and packing a large quantity of beef paste in supply for the market. Beef paste is bought all year round, but demand zooms during Tet.

Mr. Le Van Tien, the owner of the information facility said that the beef paste, processed to ensure food hygiene and safety standards is recognised as a 3-star OCOP (One Commune - One Product) item. In order to have quality products, the establishment uses fresh beef in combination with some traditional spices processed to bring the most possible delicious taste.

Over the past 10 years, Yen Tien beef paste has been trusted and distributed by traders in many markets across the city. This food is much preferred by many people because of its convenience, ready-to-eat nature and storage in refrigerators for many days. This facility produces equivalent to 160-200 cylindrical beef paste rolls every day. It is forecasted that, from now until Tet, the demand for beef pastes rolls for year-end parties and treat guests on New Year's holidays is very large, so the establishment hires more workers to produce more than 500 cylindrical beef paste rolls per day.

In addition to the above-mentioned foods, ‘cu kieu’ (pickled scallion heads), a species of wild onion commonly known as Chinese or Oriental onion, is an indispensable traditional dish on Tet holidays. Grasping this trend, over the years, many households in Hoa Nhon Commune, Hoa Vang District have established a cooperative group to grow and produce ‘cu kieu’ for supply to the market, herbey earning high economic profits.

Deputy Head of the Hoa Vang District Office of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nguyen Thi Ly said that district now houses more than 40 establishments eligible for food production. Many of them have been recognised as 3 and 4-star OCOP items widely available throughout the city.

The establishments operating in the area are closely managed by the local competent authority in terms of food safety and hygiene. Since the beginning of December, establishments have much focused on producing a large number of goods to serve the Tet market, and checks over food hygiene and safety are kept on right track.

Reporting by LE VUONG  -  Translating by  A.THU