Crude Soy Sauce Trade Village

It takes about 25 km to get to Ban Yen town, My Hao district from Hanoi along the National Route no.5 (was a village of Van Phu commune in the past). The town is the place of crude soy sauce ('ban' soy sauce) production. Vietnam is famous with many delicious and famous soy sauce 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 bean which are abundant and available. The technique to make the sauce is considerably simple; yet Ban soy sauce has a unique taste which is different from other places because of traditional secrets.

Ban soy sauce trade village employs about 300 labourers; 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; some only operate for several years as the sauce making is prosperous. Depending on prestige and quality, some households operate in large-scale, having three hundred of jars containing up to 40,000 litres which are continuously circulated. Some households only can sell thousands of litres. However, the soy sauce profession cannot expand as expected due to market and consumption factors. Hence, the sauce production of the trade village is only about 400,000 – 500,000 litres; the turnover is more than VND 2 billion per year.

hungyen.gov.vn