Making a fortune from salt

With a starting capital of nearly VND 300 million from the province's promotional budget, business owner Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet of Ben Cat town boldly invested nearly VND 600 million to modernize the production process of various types of salt, realizing the ambition to improve the brand and create motivation for future development.

From the ambition to rise

We visited Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet's business specializing in the production of various types of salt as part of the province's promotional program. Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet, the business owner, said that Binh Duong province is adjacent to Tay Ninh province, so the profession of making shrimp salt and chili salt has been learned by the people of Binh Duong, who have also added or subtracted ingredients according to their own production formulas to create their own unique marks, which are still well received by consumers.

Evaluation of the machinery support project for Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet's business in Ben Cat town

Nguyet moved with her husband to Tay Ninh province - the birthplace of specialty salts such as chili salt and shrimp salt. After a period of living, Nguyet's family started a business in Binh Duong province with various occupations but without success. Around August 2022, Nguyet switched to producing chili salt and shrimp salt under the brand name of Nhu Nguyet. Thanks to her long time living in Tay Ninh and the salt-making profession, which was also a traditional profession in her husband's family, she had some experience in the field. The result has been a success beyond expectations, with consumers accepting and trusting the products of the business. The amount supplied to the market is about 500kg of salt per day.

Currently, in addition to selling to grocery stores and fruit shops, the products of the business are mainly distributed to wholesale markets in provinces and cities such as Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Binh Phuoc, Ho Chi Minh city, Kien Giang, and Vinamart stores in Binh Duong province. In the future, the Nhu Nguyet brand products will seek opportunities to be sold in large supermarkets such as Co.opmart, Go!, and even have the desire to export to foreign countries.

"The products of the business have met part of the consumers' preferences within and outside the province. However, the current salt production process still uses manual methods, so the quality and quantity have not fully met the customers' demands. To meet the increasing demands of customers, rural industrial establishments need to improve their production processes and tightly control from raw materials to finished products. Therefore, Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet's business has boldly invested in modern machinery and equipment in the production and processing line of various types of salt to increase production capacity, improve quality, reduce product costs, and expand the market in the future," Nguyet shared her aspirations.

Visiting the modern salt production process recently invested in Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet's business in Ben Cat town

Improving product quality combined with lowering prices will increase the competitiveness of the product in the market, which is of great significance to the existence of the production unit. Investing in advanced machinery and applying scientific and technological advances to production to create high-quality product lines. In addition, the business always pays attention to food hygiene issues and regularly participates in food safety training courses organized by the local authorities.

Modernizing the production process

In our discussion, Truong Thanh Nhan, Deputy Director of the Investment Promotion, Trade, and Industrial Development Center, said that after investing in machinery in the processing process of various types of salt, the business will be able to increase the automation rate, thereby increasing production capacity from 500kg to 1000kg per day, stabilizing quality, and ensuring food safety factors and labor safety. Implementing the project will create conditions and incentives to encourage rural industrial establishments to innovate their equipment and production tools, helping to solve the current problem of job shortages.

Based on our observation, the invested machinery has helped the business modernize the production process. The raw materials are cleaned and dried using solar energy dryers. The spices are ground to start mixing the mixture together and then marinated with salt. This is the most important stage that determines the quality and price of the salt because each establishment will have its own unique processing formula to produce their characteristic salt samples. Next, the salt is roasted using a specialized roasting machine heated by gas. The advantage of this method is labor and time-saving, resulting in fresh and fluffy salt grains with less discoloration but still retaining the aroma of salty taste.

After roasting, the salt is passed through a dosing machine, bottled, labeled, and sealed. At this stage, the salt is finally checked for quality before being packed into boxes, stored in the warehouse, and delivered to customers.

After investing in the production line, not only were the above weaknesses overcome, but it also helped business owner Vo Thi Nhu Nguyet enhance production capacity, expand the market, and meet customer demands in terms of design and quality.

Reported by Tieu My – Anh Tuan – Translated by Vi Bao