Hue villagers find the strengths of tradition

Tourists attracted to Hue, a beautiful city that was the country’s capital from 1802 to 1945, increased the demand for the me xung rice paper produced by the 25 families of Huong Ho village. Although they worked hard, an income of VND2 million ($130) per month made life seem easy.
Then in December, 2002, the Flying Horse rice paper factory was set up near Huong Ho and quickly came to dominate the market. The small producers in Huong Ho lost almost all of their clients.
Many women tried other jobs, such as selling vegetables and fresh rice paper (made in the same way as me xung but not dried) in Hue’s Dong Ba market. The men looked for construction jobs. But the future of the 160 residents of Huong Ho looked grim.
Some families were making losses, others did not earn much more than the fare from their village to the market. Savings were dwindling and many villagers feared they would soon not be able to afford their children’s education.
The Danang Rural Resource Unit, set up under the United Nation’s International Development Organisation’s (UNIDO) Women Entrepreneurship Development Project with the Vietnam Women’s Union, heard about the villager’s plight.
When the unit arrived in March 2003, gloom had overwhelmed the village.
The 25 families were gathered together to discuss possible ways out and the UNIDO project’s marketing training module was introduced to the villagers.
Trainers from the project who were staff of the Women’s Union and universities came and helped the group look harder at markets for rice paper: to analyse the strengths and weakness of the Flying Horse industrial rice paper and their traditional paper and see where opportunities lay for the group to market their product.
After one month spent in training and consultation, the group identified niche markets that industrial rice paper had not yet been able to tap – rice paper for making spring rolls, rice paper baked and served in restaurants, and confectionary factories that preferred the taste of traditional rice paper.
The Women’s Union linked the group with a bank and 12 members of the group obtained loans of VND3-5 million ($200 to $360) which replenished working capital spent when business went bad. Twenty-five families started business again with confidence. They tapped dealers at Dong Ba market and others in the newly-identified market segment.
With skills and confidence gained after their training, the group received more and more positive responses.
“The marketing training and consultation was really helpful to me. I felt confident after the training. Now I know how to persuade people to buy my products and have an awareness of the needs of clients and the importance of meeting those needs,” said villager Nguyen Thi Dung.
Finance management training was also conducted for the group, which further helped them in their competitive pricing strategy and budgeting for their business.
“Now we know how much we spend and earn and can adapt expenses accordingly,” said Phan Thi Thuy, head of the group.
By December 2003, one year after the shadow of the Flying Horse fell on the village, the situation is quite different.
White smoke rises from houses and white rice paper dries under the sun, making the village bright. The happy faces of the village’s female entrepreneurs reflect their business achievements.
National Project Coordinator, Le Thi Dieu Phuc, spoke with Dung and her husband while they were at work.
“I have a lot of clients now. Before I could only sell 500 pieces of rice paper per day, now it has almost doubled. My income is now even higher than before when I made rice paper for confectionary,” Dung said.
“Relevant marketing knowledge, direct consultation and group working methods worked well with this group. Challenges are still ahead.
“But we are confident that with the knowledge of marketing, finance management and entrepreneur spirit embedded by the project, and with technology and product diversification the entrepreneurs of the village now have the capacity to cope with challenges and adapt their products and marketing strategy to maintain their position in the market,” said Phuc.