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Salt harvest season in An Ngai

BA RIA – VUNG TAU – After Tet, salt farmers in An Ngai commune, Long Dien district rush out to harvest salt.

White crystalline salt plots in a field of nearly 300 hectares in An Ngai commune, Long Dien district are preparing to be harvested.

According to ancient documents and books from the 17th century, the areas of Long Dien, Phuoc Hung and An Ngai were explored and produced sea salt to serve the needs of local people, then thrived and became famous. from the 20th century with hundreds of households, passed down through generations.

Salt fields covered with canvas are being harvested. In recent years, many An Ngai households have applied the tarpaulin salt production model, yielding 20-30% higher, quality and selling price higher than the traditional method.

According to the salt people, salt production in An Ngai takes place in the dry season, from November to April next year. During this time, it is sunny and windy, the water from the river flows out less, so the sea water salinity is relatively high.

Mr. Tuan (50 years old, right) and two colleagues use a page (a salt rake made of rectangular iron) to push salt under the weather of 33 degrees Celsius. All three have worked for the field owners for more than 20 years. Their work in the early morning and late afternoon. “On the main days of the sun-drying season in the middle of the field, pushing the salt, the salt vapors are hot, and people can’t stand it, so they have to work early until about 9-10 am to take a break,” Mr. Tuan said.

Crystallized salt clings to a hard layer, workers use a homemade plow to separate.

Salt is collected by the field owner on the bank of the umbrella to drain for a day or two before the workers push it ashore.

Mr. Luong Van Sang (An Ngai commune) said that the hired salt harvesters are organized into groups. His team has 26 people working on raking salt, transporting salt ashore, packing…

Workers push a salt cart weighing 52 kg ashore and gather it in a pile, with a rental price of 200,000-220,000 VND per ton.

This is just the beginning of the season, their working day is sometimes only an hour or two. “Wages are calculated according to the amount of salt transported. Today there is little work, each person only gets about 100,000 VND, but there are peak days to earn nearly one million VND”, Mr. Sang said.

Mr. Sang stood at the gathering yard and recorded the number of turtle carts pushing salt ashore with a square symbol. “Four squares, 19 bricks is a ton, this way is easy, it is difficult to confuse and save for later to calculate the work for employees,” he said.

The women are given priority to do the work of shoveling salt into the turtle cart. “I’ve been working in this field since I was a girl, now I’m 55 years old. At the end of the salt season, anyone can do whatever they want,” said Ms. Le Thi Hoa in Long Dien town.

A pile of salt over 2 m high, 7 m wide waiting for traders to buy. An Ngai salt is of high quality, widely consumed in the western provinces. In which, Phu Quoc (Kien Giang) buys a large amount to produce a fish sauce.

Mr. Huynh Van Thuyet produced 5 Sao of salt, said that each batch of salt collected 45 tons, selling price 1,000 VND per kg, earning about 20 million VND. “Salt prices have fluctuated in recent years, while salt workers are hard to find, and the prices are high, so the income of salt farmers is decreasing,” said Mr. Thuyet.

After harvesting, people operate away from fans – a structure similar to a pump powered by wind, bringing in water to make the next batch of salt. This system helps people save a lot of effort and cost.

According to the Sub-Department for Quality Management of Agro-Forestry-Fisheries and Fisheries Ba Ria-Vung Tau, this year the whole province produced 580 hectares of salt, a decrease of more than 117 hectares compared to the previous year.

The area for salt production has been narrowed due to land acquisition for the project. In addition, the income from salt production is low, most salt farmers have to borrow from traders and sell at a price lower than the market price, leading to losses.

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