A day of salt farmers in An Hoa commune (Quynh Luu district, Nghe An) begins at dawn, when the first rays of the new day are still shy behind the roofs. Groups of people wearing conical hats, carrying light burdens on their shoulders, and carrying locusts in their hands rushed to the salt fields. From about 6 to 10 am, when the sun is not too strong, people mainly just work the soil and water the salt fields. The harvest usually takes place in the afternoon, from 12 noon onwards, when the sun rises at noon. “Chicken egg yolk” shines through the morning dew, signaling a new day. Silhouette of a woman diligently working in the morning sunlight reflected in the clear salt fields. Salt occupation is associated with long fields, full of sunshine and salty sweat. The square salt fields, reflecting the sparkling morning sun, create a beautiful scene. At different times of the day, the salt field is beautiful in different angles, full of lyricism and nostalgia. The dawn on the salt field has a rustic and idyllic beauty that is so attractive. Over 60 years of work, Ms. Phan Thi Chinh (77 years old) is very familiar with this place. Although her children have all looked for other jobs, she still sticks to the profession alone. For Mrs. Chinh, the salty taste of the sea or the hot sun of the sky has “soaked” ever since. “This job is so hard! The sun is hot, people are in the shade, and we have to go out to dry, almost no time to rest. It’s hard work, it’s hard work, but the income is not much, just enough to live through the day”, Ms. Chinh confided. In that hardship, she still smiled beautifully. For generations, the salt people of An Hoa have attached their lives to the grain of salt, despite many hardships and bitterness.

There has not been a study stating the time period when Quang products began to be exported to other countries, only that, as early as 1925, in the study on Quang Ngai, French Ambassador Laboord wrote that day: ” The wealth and abundance of this province also lies in the cultivation of sugarcane… The harvesting of sugarcane has found a regular exit from the Chinese in Thu Xa. They will export molasses to Hong Kong… They already export up to 12,000 tons of sugar a year.” The busy Phu Tho wharf is now just a peaceful and quiet residential area. Photo: Y THUY In the editorial Quang Ngai province, advocated by Nguyen Ba Trac, printed in Nam Phong magazine in 1933, it also helps us visualize the export of goods of the Quang Ngai people in the past as follows: “Quang Ngai has 3 gates. Big sea: Son Tra estuary in Binh Son, Co Luy estuary in Tu Nghia and Sa Huynh estuary in Duc Pho. Each gate has a Department of Commerce to tax export and import goods. Regarding goods exported through seaports, Quang Ngai province also stated that: “The most important export item of Quang Ngai province is sugar. The place to export the most is Co Luy estuary carried out by Thu Xa city. Ginseng and cinnamon are sold at Son Tra gate, salt is sold at Sa Huynh gate. Particularly for Quang Ngai sugar specialties exported through 3 seaports of Co Luy, Son Tra, Sa Huynh; Quang Ngai province also detailed that, in 3 years 1929 – 1931, Quang Ngai exported 24.1 tons of sugar. In addition to the above products, in the Quang Ngai Geography also mentioned more about the export of rice: “The number of rice exported through the seaports of Co Luy, Son Tra and Sa Huynh in 1931 was still over 80 tons. This is the amount of rice sold by landowners to private traders for export. From the above documents, it can be affirmed that the ownership of large seaports has helped trade and export goods from Quang Ngai to developed countries very early. The reason why Son Tra estuary (Sa Can) is the main export place of cinnamon products is because the source of cinnamon from Tra Bong is quite conveniently transported by traders along the Tra Bong river down to the sea estuary. In Sa Huynh (Duc Pho), because salt is produced by people right next to the sea mouth, salt becomes the main export product through this estuary. As for the Co Luy gate, according to cultural researcher Cao Van Chu, this is the gateway for sugar products from the Quang Ngai plain to other parts of the country and the world, not only through China, but also through China. and through Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore… There are no boats now At Co Luy, from ancient times, Chinese merchant ships, after entering this seaport, often anchored at Phu Tho wharf (in the territory of Nghia Phu commune, Quang Ngai city today). Here, goods transported from China such as silk, pottery, traditional medicine… will be unloaded on small boats and transported back to Vuc Hong wharf in Thu Xa (in Nghia Hoa commune, district). Tu Nghia today) delivered to the merchants there. After that, traders in Thu Xa again unloaded Quang Ngai products such as sugar, honey, and agarwood… and then transported them down to Phu Tho wharf and loaded them on Chinese merchant ships to take them back to China. Salt is the main export product through Sa Huynh gate, but for many years, the price has always dropped, making salt farmers less interested in keeping the job. Photo: Y THUY According to the documents in the book Co Luy in the stream of Vietnamese marine culture by author Cao Chu, in the documents of Quang Ngai Province recorded in 1906 by the French colonial government, maritime transportation in Co Luy was It is clearly shown as follows: “In: 330 merchant ships in Central Vietnam entered, 8 sailing ships from Cochinchina arrived, forming a total of 3,000 tons. Ra: 430 sailing ships of China, 27 sailing ships of Cochinchina, 20 sailing ships of Tonkin, combined to a tonnage of 13,000 tons. According to Nguyen Thi Mot, 88 years old, living in Nghia Phu, in the past, Phu Tho wharf was always crowded with boats. Seeing that merchant ships bought sugar in large quantities for export, many people in Nghia Phu also went to trade in sugar in the past. After finding sugar-making villages in Nghia Dung, Nghia Dung to buy spoon sugar, people went back to work to cut the sugar into small lumps, then use a mallet to rub the sugar into powder. Finished sugar is packed into bags to sell to Chinese merchant ships, or to boats going south and north. It used to be one of the busiest trading ports in the province. However, now, Co Luy estuary is just an alluvial estuary, with few ships and boats absent. Once the most important export of Quang Ngai, but now the sugar processing factory in Quang Ngai has also ceased operations. One commodity that used to be the main export product through Sa Huynh gate is salt, which has fallen into a state of “falling in price” for many years, making salt farmers no longer interested in keeping the job… I don’t know when. , those products have regained their “position” as before?

The hot May sun seemed to exhaust people, but salt people in Chau Ha village, Thach Chau commune (Loc Ha – Ha Tinh) were still busy in the salt fields. For them, the sun is a privilege that nature has bestowed to make the salt crop more bountiful. The peak sunshine of May makes many people uncomfortable, but for the salt people of Chau Ha it is the favor of nature, because the hot sun means that they will have a salt season… The salt season in Chau Ha usually starts from April to August. In order to make white salt grains, the salt people in Chau Ha often start working from early morning to early evening. They go to the fields early to pour the filtered sea water from the previous day on the sun-dried umbrellas. In the midst of the sweltering sun, the wind blowing fiercely, and the salty taste in the face, Mr. Nguyen Hong Tuan (SN 1958) still worked hard at each stage. Mr. Tuan’s family makes 5 sao of salt. Every day, he and his wife start work from 5 am to 6 pm. According to Mr. Tuan, to make a batch of salt must go through many stages and every stage is hard and laborious. Starting from preparing the field, compacting the soil, taking sea water into the field, drying the sand, soaking the sand, settling and filtering the water and then scooping it up into the drying box. Just a full day in the sun, the white crystals of salt gradually appear in each box under each golden sun. Working with the profession for more than 40 years, Mr. Tuan shared: “The salt industry is very hard. If you work hard, this job also helps the salt farmers to have more money in and out of the fields, although they are not rich, but it is enough to cover their lives. This season, my family makes 5 sao, after the end of the season, the output is about 35 tons of salt. With the price of 1,200 VND/kg, this year’s salt crop my family earns a good income. The salt industry depends on the weather, so during the growing season, from morning to night, Mr. Tuan and other salt farmers in the village can only rest for more than an hour, the rest are always anxious to watch the sun and rain. , standing in the field. Mr. Tuan confided: “Good harvest is also thanks to God, bad is also because of God. There are years when the salt season comes to harvest only a few times, then it rains heavily, in a moment the salt fields become a vast, white sea of ​​water, the salt people can only stand at the door and look out.. .”. For many people, the heat is “harsh”, but for the salt people, every year there is a lot of rain and storm, and the sun is low, people are restless. Because this is a job that requires a lot of sunshine. Contrary to most other occupations, intense sunshine and prolonged sunny days are always the desire of the salt people of Chau Ha in the salt fields. Although at the age of “near the land, far from the sky”, Nguyen Thi Chat (81 years old) still tries to make 1.5 sao of salt to earn extra income. Every day, from 5 a.m., Mr. Cho’s hand had to take a handful of shovels, trailers, drinking water… to go to the fields to make salt. Holding a hydrometer to measure the salinity of water, Mr. Chot shared: “The salt profession is so arduous, when it’s sunny, people rest, I carry tools to the field to do it immediately, then my feet will be dark until dark. just homed. On sunny days, if I work hard, I can collect more than 1 quintal of salt, giving an income of more than 100,000 VND. Mr. Chot said, from 12 am to 14 pm is the time when people use a tool to measure the salinity of sea water to determine the salt concentration, when the salinity in the water reaches 20 degrees, the salt people put water into the filter system. for salt production. If it’s sunny, you can also put salt in this layer or another layer, but if it’s not sunny, it’s not too crowded. Sometimes in the middle of the main crop, the unseasonal rains suddenly come, how much effort is successful… in the wild. When he was tired and sweaty, he went to a temporary shack next to the salt field to rest and drink water to regain strength. More than 70 years of salt production, which means that Uncle Ching has gone through 70 harsh summers, but he has never tried to measure the temperature of the salt field at noon, only knowing that the more sweat he sweats, the hotter the sun. the more salt you can harvest. Salt begins to crystallize at about 2pm every day, at this time, salt people rush to start harvesting. Each square of pure white salt is like “pearls” carefully collected by the salt people. According to many salt people, the price of salt for many years has not escaped the fluctuations, up and down. The chorus of good harvests, losing prices, keeps hanging around with the salt people here. At the beginning of the season, little salt, many small traders come to the fields to ask to buy. In the middle of the season, salt is “crushed” as the price. On sunny days 39 – 40 degrees Celsius, the salt field evaporates, despite the saltiness of the salt and the heat like frying a frying pan in the face every day, the salt people of Chau Ha still persistently beam their bare feet under the salt fields. . Perhaps, there is no profession that oozes hot oil like salt making. The salty white salt is the crystallization of the taste of the sea and the sweat of the salt people in the fields. The people of Chau Ha have for many generations still buckling “carrying the sun”, carrying the hardships of life on their shoulders. And for them, making salt is not only an income but also to preserve the traditional profession… Currently, the whole village of Chau Ha has about 110 households engaged in salt production, with a total area of ​​more than 13 hectares. The salt industry here has been around for more than 50 years, since the salt industry has helped many families here stabilize their lives, raise their children to study and grow up. That said, but the salt makers in Chau Ha now only have “aged” men and women attached to the profession. Mr. Nguyen Minh Chau (SN 1961) confided: “The young people in the village when they finish high school, if they don’t go to university or college, they all go to the South to settle down, in the salt fields now there are only shadows of the old people. old person. I know that making salt is not a high income, but I and many other households in the village are not willing to give up, because I want to keep the traditional profession of my forefathers.” With more than 30 years of working with the salt industry, Ms. Le Thi Ty (born in 1962) said: “The salt industry depends on the “sunshine”, the consumption is precarious, we always expect the authorities at all levels to have policies to support farmers in finding a stable consumption market, so that the salt industry will not be lost or abandoned. According to Ms. Ty, over the years, the salt people here have tasted the bitterness of salt making, but if they don’t make salt, they don’t know what to do, because they have no agricultural land and no side jobs. How many things must be carried on the back of the salt grain, so that the output and price are stable, not being forced by traders, which is the biggest desire of the salt people today. According to many salt farmers, the price of salt goes up and down erratically, many people when the salt season ends, they have to turn to other seasonal jobs such as construction workers, porters, fishers… to make a living. Even so, all of them still did not give up the salt profession because the hard work and saltiness in the fields late at night had soon become familiar to them. With their hard work and love for their profession, the people who are “hot team, looking forward to the sky” in Chau Ha salt fields are day by day refining the essence of the sea to make a living and keep their jobs. Sticking with a grain of salt, the lives of the salt people here are still full of hardship and hardship, however, showing up on each of their faces is always an optimistic smile. Ms. Le Thi Chau (SN 1963) shared: “My family has 3 children, but none of them follow in the footsteps of their parents in doing traditional jobs. My husband often jokes: “Let’s work hard until our eyes are open and our hands are not shaken to keep the job, so that we can’t support the job that has supported our whole family for most of our lives”. As for health, my wife and I will not quit our job, quit complaining.” For the salt people of Chau Ha, the white salt warehouses are the “gift burdens” that the sea and sunshine bestowed on them. And perhaps, for that reason, although the salt industry is hard and precarious, the salt people here still do not want to give up their job, on the contrary, they see salt as a part of life.