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| Hue specialties served to passengers on a heritage train |
Flavors of the Ancient Capital aboard the heritage train
The appearance of salt coffee, banh loc, banh nam and banh ep aboard the ‘Connecting Central Heritage’ train running between Hue and Da Nang has surprised and delighted many passengers. These distinctive Hue foods are now pre-prepared and deep-frozen, requiring only a few minutes to thaw or reheat before being enjoyed while still retaining their original flavors.
For many years, most Hue specialties remained tied to a ‘made locally, sold locally’ model. Once a visitor’s trip ended, so did the opportunity to continue consuming the products. That approach, however, is gradually changing.
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc May, Member of the Board of Directors of Kinh Do Specialties Joint Stock Company and Strategy Director of Hue One Food, around 30 - 50 products are currently served aboard heritage trains and North - South railway services, nearly 80% of which are Hue specialties. Frozen salt coffee alone accounts for around 20 - 25% of sales revenue onboard.
To be served on trains, products must have a long shelf life, be easy to transport and quick to prepare while still maintaining their quality. This has become a ‘test’ that forces businesses to change the way they operate. Thanks to deep-freezing technology, foods and beverages that could previously only be enjoyed on site can now enter modern distribution channels. The Hue - Da Nang heritage train, and the upcoming Hue - Phong Nha one, are therefore becoming the testing grounds for the commercialization of Hue specialties.
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| Many convenient products from Kinh Do Specialties have been improved through the application of technology to better serve customers |
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hue, Director of Hue Viet Organic One Member Co. Ltd., said that with more than eight million passenger journeys each year, the railway sector offers considerable potential as a channel for both promotion and sales. However, to achieve greater effectiveness, local specialties need coordinated investment in technology, packaging, branding and digital communications.
Enhancing the value of local specialties
The longstanding weakness of many Hue specialties lies not in their flavor, but in their commercial viability. Short shelf lives, inconsistent quality and heavy dependence on manual craftsmanship have made it difficult for these products to enter major retail systems or export markets.
To address this, many businesses have chosen to invest in science and technology as well as research and development (R&D). Hue One Food’s frozen Hue cakes are one example. Products such as banh loc, banh nam, banh it and banh ep have been standardized in terms of recipes, ingredient quantities, production processes and preservation technology. As a result, they can be transported over long distances and stored for longer periods while retaining their quality after reheating.
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| Passengers aboard the heritage train enjoy frozen salt coffee produced by O Lau Joint Stock Company. Photo: Kinh Do Specialties |
Businesses are also gradually upgrading their equipment, from semi-automatic cake presses and automatic dough-cutting machines to more complete production lines, with the aim of increasing automation, reducing costs, stabilizing quality and improving productivity.
Taking a different approach, O Lau Joint Stock Company applies deep-freezing technology to produce canned and bottled salt coffee that can be stored for extended periods while retaining its flavor after thawing. The product is suitable for service aboard trains and also has potential for distribution through retail systems and for export.
Mr. Nguyen Duc May, CEO of O Lau Joint Stock Company, said the company’s current production line has a capacity of 30.000 – 50.000 products per month and can be expanded to 100.000 - 200.000 products as the market grows.
A common approach among many Hue businesses is to combine local resources with technology to create distinctive added value. For example, banana flour with a high resistant-starch content from A Luoi is used to create a unique story for banana-flour bread. Hue cakes, nem lui, salt coffee and other products are likewise developed around their own stories, allowing businesses not only to sell products but also to ‘export culture on the spot’.
Many companies are developing raw-material zones, registering production-area codes, and applying digital technology and AI in production management. Hue One Food’s frozen Hue cakes are already available in the United States, while O Lau’s frozen salt coffee is completing procedures for export to this demanding market. Many Kinh Do Specialties products are also expanding their distribution networks through the railway system and retail channels such as Aeon and Go!.
“Three-party” cooperation to take local specialties further
For Hue specialties to enter global value chains, efforts by businesses alone are not enough. Kinh Do Specialties plans to add frozen bun bo Hue, rice dishes, bun hen, banh chung, banh tet and Hue sweet soups to its strategic product portfolio. This requires the participation of scientists to standardize recipes and ensure food safety and quality.
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| Hue products are now in stock and being chosen by many customers |
Frozen bun bo, for example, cannot simply be made by cooking a bowl of noodles and then freezing it. Its components must be researched, processed and separated so that after thawing and recombining them, the dish still retains its original flavor. This is the scientific dimension that producers and retailers need to incorporate into an integrated value chain for local specialties.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Son, Director of Hue City Department of Science and Technology, affirmed that innovation and technology transfer are key to enhancing the value of local specialties. The “three-party” cooperation model plays an important role, with the State creating supportive mechanisms, promoting innovation and connecting resources; scientists providing technological solutions; and businesses bringing research outcomes to market.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Ai Nhung, Director of the Institute for Research and Application of Science and Technology under the University of Sciences, Hue University, also noted that when scientists accompany businesses from research and refinement of processing procedures to intellectual property protection, traditional products have greater opportunities to meet both domestic and international market standards.
Hue has an advantage with Hue University and its member universities, many of which have strong expertise in food technology, agriculture, biotechnology and automation. Meanwhile, Hue-based businesses hope the city will soon plan dedicated raw material production areas and centralised production clusters for local specialities, as well as cold-storage infrastructure and large-scale product promotion and distribution centers. When production is organized along a value chain, businesses will be better positioned to apply technology, reduce costs and expand their markets.
In practice, from Hue cakes already sold in the United States and cans of salt coffee on the domestic market now being prepared for export, to Hue products served to travellers, these developments show that advancing local specialties through science and technology, innovation and value-chain linkages is a sustainable direction.