The People’s Committee of Cần Thơ has just granted certificates to four products in the program “One commune, one product” (OCOP) in the period 2018-2020. One of them is pangasius sauce made by Chương Văn Khanh in Tân Lộc ward of Thốt Nốt district.
A slump in pangasius prices dragged farmers into serious loss, thus Chương Văn Khanh, 55, thought about establishing a facility of processing dried fish and fish sauce from pangasius material.
Khanh stocks hundreds of thousands of SPF pangasius in 50,000m2 of water surface. Water is rotated frequently and filtered through a filter system before going to rivers. In 2016, the Út Anh facility of dried and pangasius sauce owned by Khanh was established.
He tells his own way of making fish sauce. He selects big, healthy and good-looking fish (0.8-1kg), mainly from his own grow-out ponds, ensuring food safety and hygiene. After cleansing, fish is mixed with white salt bought from Phan Thiết, then pineapple and palm sugar bought from Cambodia to make it slightly sweet.
“Phan Thiết’s salt makes fish sauce bright, eye-catching, slightly salty and be preserved within 60-70 days. Cambodia’s palm sugar is slightly sweet and more delicious than cane sugar. These are two special criteria of the Út Anh fish sauce trademark”, said Khanh.
After the mixture, fish is compressed in hard plastic barrels within 30-35 days, depending on sunny or rainy weather, then the mixture is taken out to add smashing rice and flavors and brought back to barrels for compaction. Fish sauce will be made 60-90 days later.
Become rich thanks to OCOP
As calculated by Khanh, 4kg of pangasius material can produce 1kg of fish sauce. An 1kg bottle of fish sauce is sold at 120,000 dong while a 550gr bottle is at 65,000 dong. Khanh sells 400kg of pangasius sauce and earns approximately 30 million dong/month, equal to 360 million dong/year.
Khanh makes dried pangasius and sells them at 140,000-260,000 dong/kg, depending on each type. An average of 200kg of dried pangasius of all types is sold every day, leaving a profit of 100-150 million dong/year after production costs. Khanh provides jobs to 5-7 workers, even 20-30 ones at the peak season.
The Út Anh fish sauce and dried pangasius trademark has been registered for protection and satisfied food safety and hygiene standards, attracting a large number of traders from prefectures.
VFM
