Master of the perfect

Rice vermicelli production is passed on to Ba Khanh and his wife by his parents. Mrs. Luu Kim Phung, owner of Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli, said that in 1986, after nearly 10 years of army service, he and his wife decided to return home to help their parents to assist and develop the family business. In order to make a living, they decided to join the family business of making traditional rice vermicelli.

At that time, rice vermicelli production was manual. Their family could make only 300-400 kg a day, sold to small shops and retail consumers. Desiring to expand the business, they went to Can Tho City to pool capital and open a noodle-making factory. As they lacked experience in management and production, they suffered several business failures and they returned to their hometown of Tra On to work with their parents.

The value of failure is experience learned for the future. So, they did not feel discouraged or give up. Inspired by their parents, in 1994, they once again bought land and opened a factory near Cai Cam Bridge, Vinh Long City, laying the foundation for today's Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli. At first, the small facility mainly sold in the central market of Vinh Long City. Once settled down, they started to focus resources for building a solid step for shaping the Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli brand. Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli has constantly upgraded techniques and applied new production technologies to reduce human work and increase productivity and product quality by using stuffing boxes, pressing flour and shifting to use plastic wraps from banana leaf wraps. By being dedicated to the profession and making changes to catch market trends, they always search and produce clean and good products for consumers. Specifically, the shift from “rice vermicelli wrapped with banana leaf” seemed simple but time-consuming and effortful.

Greater effort, focus and experience made their business more effective and successful. Especially from 2010 - 2013, when mass media reported that some producers used Tinopal to whiten vermicelli, consumers shifted to use milky white vermicelli (without using chemicals), including Ba Khanh rice vermicelli. Since then, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli became more well-known to consumers. Especially since 2015, Ba Khanh vermicelli has gradually made inroads in more supermarkets and convenience stores.

Ms. Luu Kim Phung said, with careful selection of ingredients and a self-contained production, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli not only ensures quality, hygiene and safety, but also has beautiful packaging, barcodes and enough information of origin to be widely accepted by the market. It is a great achievement when dedication and responsibility has been multiplied and customers have increasingly trusted in Ba Khanh-branded food products.

Ongoing investment and innovation

Their current success from a traditional profession comes from bold investment for a spacious and modern rice vermicelli production factory. In the past, consumers were often concerned about food hygiene and safety at rice vermicelli producers,  but Ba Khanh brings them absolute peace of mind.

The ongoing research helps Ba Khanh actively invest a handsome amount of money every in technologic upgrading. Currently, the factory has six rice vermicelli machines, costing VND350 million each, with an hourly individual capacity of 300 kg. The facility shifted to use some non-washing vermicelli machines to make microorganism-pasteurized vermicelli with a shelf life of 36 - 48 hours (compared with only 24 hours when made by old machines). Vermicelli sticks are tougher and more delicious while the amount of wastewater discharged into the environment is reduced by 80% compared to traditional production methods. Especially in 2017, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli started to apply the ISO 22000:2005 management system and completed the upgrade to ISO 22000:2018 in 2019, thus enhancing productivity and stabilizing output. Currently, Ba Khanh produces 12-13 tons per day of rice vermicelli of all kinds.

Not only caring about product quality, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli also focuses on new packaging and labelling. Supported by the local government and provincial agencies, the producer has also arranged personnel for marketing and product research and development (R&D) which accounted for 5% of revenue. By furnishing modern equipment and packaging lines and bringing products to supermarkets, Ba Khanh brand identity is boosted intensively and extensively.

With unremitting efforts, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli was named among the Top 20 strong brands of Vinh Long province from 2019 to 2020, granted the Certificate of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods - Integration Standards and presented many titles and awards from central and local agencies. In addition to being present in Co.op Mart, VinMart and other supermarket chains, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli has gradually conquered the retail market in the Mekong Delta, the Southeast, Ho Chi Minh City and the Central region, thus becoming the pride of Vinh Long province.

Ms. Luu Kim Phung added, in the coming time, Ba Khanh Rice Vermicelli will continue to make more efforts to produce clean, delicious products, ensure food hygiene and safety standards, convenience of use and environmental friendliness. As a result, its products are not only affirmed in the domestic market but also directed for export in the future.