Visiting century-old ‘flour village’ in Vietnam’s rice basket

An area in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region has been famous for its over-a-century-old cottage industry of producing high-quality rice flour and flour products.

The area, locally known as ‘Sa Dec Flour Village,’ lies along a river in Sa Dec, a city of Dong Thap Province, which is sandwiched between two major rice baskets in the Mekong Delta.

The village, with nearly 350 families employing 2,000 workers, provides around 30,000 tonnes of rice flour yearly, according to figures from the Sa Dec administration.

Rice flour made here is shipped to multiple other southern provinces, Ho Chi Minh City, several Southeast Asian and European nations.

A worker operates a machine that removes dirty substances from rice grains in the first stage of producing flour in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

The flour can be transformed into rice noodles that are the chief ingredients of Vietnam’s long-standing popular soup dishes of hu tieu and banh canh – foods typically served as breakfast and night meals.

Food made of Sa Dec flour is tough and soft and has a characteristic aroma.

The raw flour is purchased by food companies while dry flour can be stored at workshops so that it is used for creating different products.

A worker pushes a machine that separates water from wet flour over a flour container at a workshop in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. The resultant product is called raw flour, which can be dried. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

A worker takes raw flour from a container in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. This flour is then transported to neighboring food companies. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

A man dries flour at his home-based workshop in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. The covering paper is to quicken the drying and give flour a beautiful hue, he says. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

An aerial view of rice flour sun-dried on wooden frames in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

Men carry a bag of flour to a boat in the Sa Dec Flour Village in Dong Thap Province, southwestern Vietnam. Photo: C. Quoc, D. Phan & T. Nhon / Tuoi Tre

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