Businesswoman Huynh Ngoc Diep: Humanity in the taste of the sea

Making traditional fish sauce does not mean bottling it by hand, making it manually... Tradition is not old-fashioned, but keeping the core.

With more than 3 decades of experience in the fish sauce industry, businessman Huynh Ngoc Diep has always kept in mind the need to preserve the quintessence of every drop of traditional fish sauce. Businesswoman Huynh Ngoc Diep has brought 584 Nha Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company out of the "oasis" and overcome the challenge of the "storm" of industrial fish sauce from a solid launch pad inherited from the taste of the sea and human love.

To develop, change is required.

Joining the PAN Group ecosystem since 2016 as an associate company and 2 years later becoming a subsidiary (PAN currently holds 73.45% of shares), 584 Nha Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (584 Nha Trang Company) has had many opportunities to learn from the models of its "brother" companies in the ecosystem.

Since joining PAN, 584 Nha Trang Company has accelerated its investment in raw material areas and has built two raw fish sauce factories in Ca Na (Ninh Thuan) and Phan Ri Cua (Binh Thuan). The production capacity of the factories reaches over 15,000 tons of raw fish/year. Most recently, the Company has added a finished product packaging factory in Dien Phu.

Not only investing in the factory, the Company was also consulted to redesign the model, packaging and image in a more professional and modern direction. That "transformation" process caused the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company, businessman Huynh Ngoc Diep, to lose sleep many nights, especially when deciding to change the brand identity.

“The new brand identity may make consumers feel unfamiliar with the familiar image before,” Mr. Huynh Ngoc Diep predicted the difficulty.

Businessman Huynh Ngoc Diep, Chairman of the Board of Directors of 584 Nha Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company

However, he also affirmed that if you want to develop, you must change. After piloting the change of identity in a few products, the company received good feedback from customers and boldly implemented it on a large scale.

In addition to the brand identity and packaging design, many product details have also been improved. The most typical is the button cap part which is made synchronous and much more advanced.

“The finished fish sauce bottles now not only have beautiful packaging and designs, but also become very user-friendly. This is an unexpected success and we will continue to develop further,” Mr. Diep excitedly said.

During the first time representing the Company's shareholders to attend the investor meeting event in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in September 2022 organized by PAN, he had the opportunity to talk more about traditional fish sauce.

Fish sauce is a familiar and indispensable condiment in Vietnamese meals, even considered the “soul” of Vietnamese cuisine. However, in 2016, the fish sauce market was shaken by the “arsenic storm”, and the products of traditional fish sauce businesses and manufacturers were at risk of being boycotted by the market.

It is worth mentioning that, for a long time, most consumers could not distinguish between traditional fish sauce and industrial fish sauce. This story has not changed much to date.

Having been involved in the traditional fish sauce industry for more than 3 decades, Mr. Diep said that only those who pay close attention to eating and maintaining their health, especially housewives, have the habit of distinguishing between these two types of fish sauce. However, choosing which type to eat depends on many other factors.

Mr. Diep divides fish sauce into two ways: active consumption and passive consumption. “Active consumption means choosing the type of product that you and your family like to use at home. If you are too picky, you can even put it in the trunk of your car and take it with you. Most people in Company 584 Nha Trang often use this method. Passive consumption means wanting to eat this type, but being forced to eat another type, even if the product you don’t like, because of the unnatural scent, but at that time, the restaurant or eatery doesn’t have it,” the businessman born in 1962 explained.

Currently, the source of traditional fish sauce produced is not enough to meet the needs of consumers. Moreover, only a few types of traditional high-protein fish sauce are used to eat raw, without processing, but this type is only suitable for some people and for some dishes. Meanwhile, traditional fish sauce must also be mixed with other spices such as lemon, pineapple, garlic, chili, sugar... to create a natural dipping sauce, suitable for the dish that consumers want to use.

According to Mr. Diep, this method of mixing and processing will make the dish more delicious and natural, but also requires elaborate and time-consuming preparation.

Perhaps, from this need, industrial fish sauce was born. Those products are convenient, but certainly, one recipe can hardly be suitable for all dishes.

“Depending on consumer habits and health awareness, people choose products to use. This also shows that the opportunities for both traditional and industrial products are the same,” Mr. Diep commented.

Traditional does not mean old

Businesswoman Huynh Ngoc Diep has taken on the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors of 584 Nha Trang Company since 2011, after a long journey with the business.

Every time he has the opportunity to appear before the media, Mr. Diep always affirms that 584 Nha Trang Company produces "traditional" fish sauce with the meaning of retaining all the core of the product.

Fish sauce is produced with two main ingredients: fish and salt, with processes such as mixing fish, fermenting, etc. Some steps need to be changed to benefit consumers and not affect product quality.

For example, previously, the steps of mixing fish, mixing salt, scooping fish sauce from barrels… all had to be done by hand, but now they have been replaced by machines. The manual bottling process has also been replaced by production lines, machines, and equipment.

To do such “non-traditional” things, it is necessary to achieve a certain market size and output. Without these two factors, it is impossible to do it. For example, if you only produce a few thousand bottles and invest in a production line, the cost will be very high.

Therefore, Mr. Diep emphasized, making traditional fish sauce does not mean having to bottle it by hand, using manual methods. “The factory now has to be clean and beautiful. Tradition here is the tradition of raw materials, of the production process. The fish sauce must be made from fish and salt, with the right fermentation process, stirring in the right way… Tradition is not old-fashioned, but preserving the core,” said Mr. Diep.

Mr. Diep is very proud of the long history of formation and development of Company 584 Nha Trang, with a solid foundation in science and technology. Headquartered in Nha Trang, where Nha Trang University of Fisheries is located, most of the staff and workers of Company 584 Nha Trang are well-trained, knowledgeable about the industry, and comply with processes and standards. Changes in technology are constantly updated, supplemented and further developed during the production process.

The company has a technical department and a research department to improve the products. Product quality, packaging design, etc. are all seriously researched.

“Our advantage is having a professional team, well-trained staff, with extensive experience, ready to develop products that meet market needs in both quality and packaging form,” said Mr. Diep.

Traditional fish sauce manufacturing enterprises and facilities typically produce only one product, fish sauce. They often have to start small, accumulate finances , and gradually expand production.

However, in reality, some establishments that are qualified to expand face obstacles in terms of land to develop production. Currently, very few provinces and cities accept fish sauce manufacturers to set up production facilities or expand production in their locality.

In particular, most of these establishments do not know how to use financial leverage, so it is difficult to access bank support. Meanwhile, the sales method is outdated, only limited to the locality and region, making it difficult to develop markets far from the production location. Furthermore, due to limited investment in marketing and sales, in general, traditional fish sauce production establishments find it difficult to compete with other fish sauce brands and participate in exports.

584 Nha Trang Company has also developed in such an “oasis” since its establishment (in 1977). For a long time, Nha Trang traditional fish sauce was at risk of losing its brand due to many difficulties, causing most small-scale production facilities, instead of producing branded bottled fish sauce, to switch to producing raw fish sauce for businesses in other localities.

In that difficult situation, 584 Nha Trang Company under the leadership of "captain" Huynh Ngoc Diep has become a rare name that has succeeded with the traditional Nha Trang fish sauce brand thanks to its long enough development process, inherited from many families with extensive production experience.

After completing the set plans, 2023 is the right time for the Company to join hands with partners to expand the distribution channel. Mr. Diep admitted that the distribution system is currently the Company's weakest point. However, before that, the Company still has to worry about more urgent issues such as increasing production capacity, finding locations for raw fish sauce factories and finished product packaging factories, etc.

Up to this point, the plans and strategies of 584 Nha Trang Company are almost on track. But the thing that the strong captain always worries about is maintaining prestige in all circumstances. Competing on quality is healthy competition and beneficial to consumers. Over time, the taste of the sea is closely linked to human feelings, Mr. Diep believes that only fish sauce produced by traditional methods is the "national soul, national essence" of Vietnam.

Investment.Vn