Đặng Thị Luận tests her fish sauce. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ TĨNH – Two women have been selected as "Vietnamese Outstanding Farmers in 40 years of Đổi mới (Renewal) Process” in 2026. 

Đặng Thị Luận from the coastal area of Hải Ninh and Chu Thị Hồng Hà from Sơn Giang have spent years preserving and developing traditional crafts in Hà Tĩnh Province.

Traditional fish sauce

Kỳ Ninh coastal area – now part of the recently established Hải Ninh Ward of Kỳ Anh Town – is one of long-standing and renowned traditional fish sauce-making villages in central Việt Nam.

For Luận, director of Chiến Thắng Seafood Purchasing and Processing Co-operative, making fish sauce is a family legacy.

Luận became familiar with fish sauce processing through her father, Đặng Văn Bứu, who worked as a technician at a State-run fish sauce facility in the Kỳ Ninh area.

“I had been making fish sauce alongside my father since I was young. My father taught me how to select the fish, salt and fermentation vessels, as well as how to mix the ingredients and manage the fermentation process,” Luận said.

“At first, I was simply following his lead, but these tasks gradually became a passion and an integral part of my life,” she said.

After getting married in 1996, Luận started her own fish sauce business. At first, her business only produced dozens of jars of fish sauce every month to sell in local markets.

Luận lacked capital and commercial experience in a rather unstable market. Gaining a foothold was a challenge.

Luận eventually mobilised capital to set up the Chiến Thắng Seafood Purchasing and Processing Co-operative in 2016 and develop the Luận Nghiệp Fish Sauce brand. This enabled her to scale up production, improve product quality and expand market opportunities.

In April, Luận Nghiệp Fish Sauce was awarded the national five-star One Commune One Product (OCOP) certification, marking a significant milestone in Luận’s 30-year business career.

To maintain product quality, the cooperative pays close attention to every stage of production, from the selection of raw materials to the fermentation process.

The anchovies must be fresh and the salt must meet quality standards. The ingredients are mixed in appropriate proportions, placed in earthenware jars, pressed down and left to ferment for an extended period, usually between 18 months and two years, Luận said.

Since 2022, the cooperative has adopted solar energy to power around 100 fish sauce fermentation tanks, helping reduce costs and labour requirements. As of 2025, the cooperative has invested in a bottling line to increase productivity and ensure consistent product quality.

To date, Chiến Thắng Cooperative has more than 3,000 earthenware jars and around 100 solar-powered fish sauce fermentation tanks producing between 400,000 and 500,000 litres of fish sauce annually, generating revenue of approximately VNĐ15 billion (US$780,000) and providing regular employment for around 30 local workers.

In 2025, approximately 50,000 litres of the cooperative’s fish sauce were exported to both Russia and Angola.

Luận has also gradually changed her approach to the market.

Her products are promoted on Facebook, TikTok and e-commerce platforms, giving consumers farther afield greater opportunities to learn about and order Luận Nghiệp fish sauce.

Investing in deer farming

Chu Thị Hồng Hà (left) with her deer herds. VNA/VNS Photo

Having spent more than 30 years in the sika deer farming business, Chu Thị Hồng Hà, director of Thuận Hà Velvet Antler Company in Sơn Giang Commune, has weathered many ups and downs to develop a successful business model combining deer farming, as well as the processing and sale of deer-derived products.

Born into a farming family, Hà began raising sika deer in 1993, after marrying Phạm Đức Thuận, who comes from Sơn Giang Commune.

In the early days, the main products were fresh deer velvet and deer velvet soaked in rice wine. As she gained experience, she realised that reaching more customers would require improved processing methods, a more diverse product range and the ability to meet increasingly varied market demands.

With this in mind, she researched and experimented with ready-to-use products, including canned deer velvet. She also developed other products using raw materials from her herd.

Her entrepreneurial journey faced a major setback around 1995, when sika deer product prices plunged. Her family suffered losses of hundreds of millions of đồng and faced massive debts. To support the family and keep the herd, her and her husband had to take on other jobs.

Persevering through market volatility, the family gradually stabilised production as prices began to recover.

These experiences taught Hà that the long-term development of deer farming had to go hand in hand with enhanced processing, higher product quality and proactive efforts to secure markets.

In 2007, the couple established Thuận Hà Company, specialising in products derived from sika deer.

From an initially manual production model, the business gradually invested in machinery and equipment and refined its processing procedures.

The enterprise offers a diverse range of products, including fresh deer velvet, sliced fresh deer velvet, powdered dried deer velvet, deer velvet wine, deer bone extract, deer velvet extract, deer bone paste and many other products from dried deer antler.

Among these products, Thuận Hà powdered deer velvet and Thuận Hà deer velvet wine have both received three-star OCOP certification.

The business employs ten regular workers in its farming operations and generates annual revenue of tens of billions of đồng.

It has established partnerships with 15 cooperative groups and traders inside and outside Hà Tĩnh Province to purchase and distribute deer velvet, supply semi-processed materials and collaborate on product distribution. VNS