Pouring color on rice paper, the girl increased her revenue by one and a half times

Multi-colored rice paper

Vinh Duc craft village (Do Luong town, Do Luong district, Nghe An) is nearly 300 years old and is famous for its sesame rice paper products. Vinh Duc sesame rice paper has a fatty taste from rice flour, black sesame seeds, the aroma of pepper, ginger, and minced garlic, grilled on red hot charcoal, giving a crispy feeling in the mouth.

Besides the traditional black sesame rice paper products, Vinh Duc craft village also has rice paper with gac fruit and purple sweet potato (Photo: Hoang Lam).

The traditional black sesame rice paper of Vinh Duc craft village is famous throughout the province, in Hanoi, in Ho Chi Minh City and is now present in many countries around the world through many different distribution channels. According to Mr. Vo Quang Hoang - an official of the People's Committee of Do Luong town, in charge of Vinh Duc craft village - each year, the rice paper product brings in a revenue of more than 4.5 billion VND for nearly 40 production households.

In addition to the traditional black sesame rice paper products, Vinh Duc craft village now supplies the market with gac rice paper, gac milk rice paper, and purple sweet potato rice paper. The person who "dresses" the rice paper in a new way is Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhan (28 years old), the 5th generation of the craft village.

Nguyen Thi Nhan - the girl who "wears colorful clothes" for rice paper (Photo: Hoang Lam).

The colorful and eye-catching rice paper cakes with rich flavors and aromas of gac fruit, sweet potato, pepper, garlic, etc. are well received by customers. However, to "color" the traditional rice paper cakes is a tireless process of experimentation by this young woman.

Like many other women in the craft village, Ms. Nhan got used to helping her mother make rice paper when she was young. Gradually, her mother taught her the secret of mixing ingredients, because the mixing ratio, as well as the ingredients and spices, are the secret of each production household.

The girl "wears colorful clothes" for rice paper, increasing revenue by one and a half times (Video: H. Lam).

As a young person, Ms. Nhan always aspires to develop the traditional profession of her ancestors. In 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, orders decreased, consumption decreased, production was congested, at times, the kitchen was cold because the rice cakes were made and there was no place to sell them. Taking advantage of this free time, Ms. Nhan tried to experiment with new ingredients by mixing Khang Dan rice - the main, traditional ingredient - and gac fruit pulp.

By mixing gac and rice in a certain ratio, the rice paper has an eye-catching color but still retains its original flavor (Photo: Hoang Lam).

The gac fruit is seeded, the flesh is taken, mixed with rice and then ground. The flour used to make the rice paper must be smooth and fine, usually a watery flour, ground and coated as needed. Instead of using the traditional black sesame, Ms. Nhan uses white sesame to create a color effect but still retains the characteristic aroma and fat. Pepper, garlic, spices... are indispensable in the rice paper ingredients to preserve the traditional flavor of Vinh Duc rice paper.

It sounds simple, but from the time she started experimenting until she succeeded, the young girl couldn't remember how many times she had to throw away the ingredients after mixing.

Currently, Ms. Nhan's family's production facility has a "monopoly" on gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper products (Photo: Hoang Lam).

"Gac fruit contains a lot of oil. If the ingredients are mixed with a large amount of gac, the cake will not be able to be coated, and the cake will easily become soggy and break when unwrapped. If there is too little gac, the color of the cake will not be beautiful. Not to mention, the type of gac cake with a lot of oil, drying it is also more laborious, you have to watch the sun to turn the cake continuously, ensuring that the cake is really dry and does not "spill oil" during storage," Ms. Nhan shared.

To enhance the flavor of the gac rice paper, Ms. Nhan adds fresh milk or condensed milk to the mixture of the available ingredients. The dried gac rice paper has a beautiful orange-red color, and when baked, it is rich, fatty, and fragrant with the flavor of gac and milk.

Inventing gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper, Ms. Nhan hopes to diversify the products of her craft village (Photo: Hoang Lam).

After the success of gac rice paper, Ms. Nhan experimented with purple sweet potato rice paper. While gac rice paper can be made all year round, purple sweet potato rice paper can only be made seasonally to reduce the cost of raw materials because the people here cannot grow them and have to import them from other places.

"Making purple sweet potato rice paper is more laborious than making gac rice paper. The potatoes must be washed, peeled, steamed, mashed, and then mixed with rice flour. The ratio of the potatoes to the rice flour must be adjusted many times to reach the right level. If the ratio of potatoes is too high, the cake will lose its stickiness during the steaming process and will break when unwrapped," Ms. Nhan shared.

Bringing colorful cakes into supermarket chains

After a painstaking testing process, the gac rice cake did not meet expectations when it was launched on the market. Some customers were skeptical, believing that the color of the cake was created from industrial dyes.

After being thoroughly explained about the production process and all-natural ingredients, customers' initial doubts about this new product gradually disappeared. In particular, according to Ms. Nhan, the fat and sugar in the colorful rice cake product are all natural, good for the health of the user.

Compared to traditional rice paper, colorful rice paper requires more effort in processing, therefore, its economic value is also greater (Photo: Hoang Lam).

The unique color and flavor but still rich in traditional flavor of Vinh Duc rice paper has gradually conquered the most demanding customers.

Currently, among nearly 40 households specializing in rice paper production in Vinh Duc craft village, Ms. Nhan's family is "exclusively" supplying rice paper with gac fruit and purple sweet potato. The "colored rice paper" product is completely handmade, after 2 years of launching, it has gradually gained a foothold in the market, although it is still quite modest.

On average, each day, depending on the number of orders, Ms. Nhan makes from 400 to 1,000 gac rice cakes and purple sweet potato rice cakes, and at peak times, it can be up to 1,500 products/day.

After being dried, the gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper can be packed in boxes or baked according to customer requirements. Due to the ingredients and labor involved in the production process, gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper are sold wholesale at 3,000 VND/raw cake, 3,500 VND/baked cake, and retail at 4,000 VND/cake, 1,000 VND/cake higher than traditional black sesame rice paper.

By "dressing in color" for rice paper, Vinh Duc craft village products have more choices for customers (Photo: Hoang Lam).

Assessing the opportunity to expand the market for gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper products, Ms. Nhan has no intention of expanding the scale of production in the near future. According to this woman, sesame rice paper products in general and colorful rice paper products in particular will retain their original flavor when produced by hand. However, because of manual production, it will take more time and effort than machine production.

In the near future, Ms. Nhan is planning to bring new products to supermarkets and retail chains to increase value (Photo: Hoang Lam).

"Currently, my family's black sesame rice paper products, in addition to supplying to agents, have been introduced to the supermarket system. Particularly, gac rice paper and purple sweet potato rice paper, after 2 years of production, have reached many retail customers and familiar agents. In the coming time, we will try to bring this product to supermarket systems and retail chains to increase value as well as reach more customers," Ms. Nhan shared.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/do-mau-len-banh-da-co-gai-nang-doanh-thu-len-gap-ruoi-20230827223946846.htm