Crude Soy Sauce Trade Village

It takes about 25 km to get to Ban Yen Nhan town, My Hao district from Hanoi along the National Road No.5 (A village of Van Phu commune in the past), where there is crude soy sauce ('Ban' soy sauce) making job. Vietnam is well-known for many delicious and famous soy sauce making areas including Cu Da soy sauce (Ha Tay) and Nam Dan soy sauce (Nghe An); yet Ban soy sauce is a speciality that gourmet Hanoians list as one of special dishes of the ancient capital, which include La pickle, Lang basil, Bang spring rolls, Ban soy sauce, Van Van fish sauce, and Dam Set tilapia. Materials to make the soy sauce consist of rice, maize and soy beans which are abundant and available. The technique for making the sauce is considerably simple;  however, Ban soy sauce has a unique taste which is different from that of other places because of its traditional secrets.

          Ban soy sauce trade village employs about 300 labourers and the average income per labourer is about VND 300,000 – 350,000 per month. Soy sauce is made mostly by households. Some households are transmitted from the old generations; while others only run this job for several years as the sauce making job is prosperous. Depending on their prestige and quality of sauce, some households operate in large-scale with three hundred of jars containing up to 40,000 litres which are continuously circulated. Whereas, other households only can sell thousands of litres per year. However, the soy sauce profession cannot expand as expected due to the difficulties in finding market and consumption. Hence, the sauce production output of the trade village is only about 400,000 – 500,000 litres and the turnover is more than VND 2 billion per year.