Nam O Fish Sauce production processes - photo: Danangfantasticity

GI certification for national intangible cultural heritage fish sauce

The Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Village is renowned for its high-quality fish sauce products. They have been registered for geographical indication (GI) protection. This has brought major socioeconomic benefits to Da Nang while at the same time helping trade and ecological and relic-based tourism development in the local area.

Le Thi Thuc, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Science and Technology, said Nam O Fish Sauce has a long-standing reputation and was granted a collective trademark certificate by the Ministry of Science and Technology’s National Office of Intellectual Property of Vietnam (NOIP) in 2009. In 2019, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized the craft of making Nam O Fish Sauce in Hoa Hiep Nam and Hoa Hiep Bac wards of Da Nang’s Lien Chieu District as a national intangible cultural heritage.

According to Decision 437/QD-SHTT issued by the Geographical Indication and International Trademark Examination Center (GITEC), the NOIP has recently issued geographical indication certificate No.00138 for Nam O Fish Sauce. The People's Committee of Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City is in charge of managing this GI certificate.

For generations, the traditional craft of making high-quality Nam O Fish Sauce products has been well preserved. Nam O Fish Sauce is produced from anchovy fermented with salt. The anchovy is caught by local fishermen in the sea of Da Nang from the second to the third lunar months and from the seventh to the eighth lunar months.

Nam O Fish Sauce makers have only been using salt from Ca Na (Ninh Thuan Province) and Sa Huynh (Quang Ngai Province) due to their good quality and the favorable geographical distance between these two regions and Da Nang.

Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Village - photo: VNA

Seeking markets for products

According to statistics from the People’s Committee of Da Nang City’s Lien Chieu District, 64 households in the Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Village are engaged in production. These include 10 relatively large-scale fish sauce processing facilities, and 17 facilities with registered trademarks. The remaining households work seasonally.

The villagers say, “Caring for fish sauce is like caring for a young child.” They have been making fish sauce using the traditional handcrafted filtering (extracting) method for generations. It takes 12 months to extract around 100-150 liters of grade-one fish sauce.

Since 2000, the village has sold an average of 250,000 liters of fish sauce per year, more than four times higher than that in 2015. The village also has other products, such as shrimp paste, short-term fermented fish sauce, and various types of dried fish, averaging 25-30 tonnes per year, with a total revenue of over VND5 billion, generating employment for more than 200 workers.

Despite their well-established brand, the sale of Nam O Fish Sauce products still faces many difficulties. The People’s Committee of Lien Chieu District has taken various support measures to develop the Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Village. Every year, the committee provides financial support for 1-2 production facilities to participate in the OCOP (One Commune One Product) evaluation and ranking program. The committee also supports production facilities’ participation in fairs in localities.

The Lien Chieu District People’s Committee has spent the local budget on production support for households in purchasing earthenware jars, making advertising panels and signposts for the craft village association. The committee has proposed that the city use the local industry promotion budget to support association members in procuring machinery and equipment.

Lien Chieu District continues to build brands and advertise its products through various media channels, while researching to create a website introducing the Nam O Fish Sauce Craft Village.

The Nam O Fish Sauce brand has been registered at the NOIP for protection of its logo and collective trademark. It was recognized by the Da Nang City People’s Committee as an outstanding rural agricultural product in 2016. Three brands of the craft village have been recognized as OCOP products at the city level, including Binh Minh Fish Sauce, Huong Lang Co Fish Sauce, and Nam O - Hiep Hai Fish Sauce.