Western jam hustles at Tet - Vietnamese Quest

Until the appointment again, just over 1 month left until the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit in 2023. At this time, Tet jam-making households are also busy with the crop to promptly supply the market with delicious batches of jam to serve the people. Happy Tet.

Tet in the West cannot be complete without sweet jam cakes from familiar fruits of the river region. Which is a bunch of intestines, soursop, passion fruit, tamarind… (Photo: Kim Ha).

In Binh Minh town, Vinh Long province, jam production facilities for Tet are also in the peak period of production to bring to the market (Photo: Kim Ha).

Although in modern times, industrial jam production lines were born, giving high productivity, but in Binh Minh town, they still maintain traditional handmade jam making so that the old jam flavor is preserved forever (Photo: Kim Ha) ).

To meet the needs of customers, from the beginning of the 9th lunar month, the jam kilns in Binh Minh town start the season and end on the 27th of Tet (Photo: Kim Ha).

According to Mr. Tran Thanh Gian (39 years old) owner of a jam factory in Binh Minh town, his jam-making stages are completely handmade, so it takes a long time to produce a batch of quality jam (Photo: Kim Ha) .

Any kind of jam must be exposed to direct sunlight for many days in a row. After that, continue to dry in the greenhouse, the new jam is delicious (Photo: Kim Ha).

After being dried in the sun, soursop jam will be continued to dry in the greenhouse (Photo: Kim Ha).

Mr. Gian said that the demand of customers is increasing day by day. They prefer the kind of jam that has a moderate sweetness, a slight sour taste but still retains the crispiness of the fruit to eat without getting bored. Therefore, in order to turn ordinary fruits into a delicious jam, meeting the criteria of customers, each worker must have high skills, experience and know-how (Photo: Kim) River).

For example, in order to produce a delicious batch of custard-apple jam, the worker must perform a series of steps such as: Select ripe fruit, peel it, marinate in sugar, dry it on fire, wrap it in glass paper. As for passion fruit jam, it must first be washed, then boiled, marinated in sugar, dried, dried… (Photo: Kim Ha).

According to jam owners, this year the price of Tet jam ranges from 125,000 to 155,000 VND/kg, slightly higher than 2022, only about 5,000 VND each. Meanwhile, the price of raw materials has increased (Photo: Kim Ha).

One of the long-time jam makers here, Ms. Nguyen Thi Sau (76 years old), said that this year the source of raw materials was short and the price was high, so the output of jam produced at her facility was also much lower than that of the factory. with every year (Photo: Kim Ha).

Sau’s establishment makes mainly jams such as: Ginger jam, grapefruit, soursop, tamarind, bunch of intestines, passion fruit, … But the most attractive is still tamarind jam and spicy custard apple. However, this year due to the scarce source of tamarind, Mrs. Sau’s jam oven is estimated to only be able to bring to the market about 5 tons; custard apple bought at the garden increased by 15,000 VND compared to the previous year, but there are still no goods to buy (Photo: Kim Ha).