Dong Nai’s Craft Villages with development opportunities

Xuan Tam commune’s craft village in Dong Nai province is quite different from traditional craft ones in the country. It has been recently formed by a group of farmers who developed their craft from self-learned skills. Unique wooden handicraft items can be found in this village.

Different kinds of craft production

Tra Co village is well-known for its decorative products made of wood waste such as sailbboats

Xuan Tam commune’s craft village in Dong Nai province is quite different from traditional craft ones in the country. It has been recently formed by a group of farmers who developed their craft from self-learned skills. Unique wooden handicraft items can be found in this village. The plant parts mostly used in craftwork are tree roots, bark, tree stumps … Xuan Tam commune has to date more 40 manufacturers of handcrafted wooden products. The commune had only some workshops a few years ago, but a series of woodwork enterprises has appeared along 1A highway in recent years. According to many owners of the workshops, Xuan Tam’s craft village develops strongly. This village is widely known for its craft work made of tree stumps such as table, chair, drum, statue and picture.  Xuan Tam’s wood products are displaying at many showrooms in Ho Chi Minh City. In addition, the villages of Tra Co and Ngu Phuc in Trang Bom district are also well- known for their decorative products made of wood waste such as sailboats, ships, airplanes etc. To date, there are hundreds of companies and more than 600 household businesses that are operating in the wood processing sector in Dong Nai province. Among traditional crafts in Dong Nai, the most salient is rattan and bamboo weaving. A wide variety of craft products are produced with local material sources and many of these products are exported and available in the international marketplace.

Fine-art pottery is an exported product of Dong Nai province

The pottery making village in Buu Hoa ward, Bien Hoa city has a history of development of more than 100 years. Bien Hoa city is home for 12 companies, 1 cooperative and 3 household businesses engaged in manufacturing pottery products. Over 80 per cent of these products are exported, going to all parts of the world. There is also a stone-carving village in Bien Hoa with a long history of over 100 years. Long Khanh townlet has a mushroom-growing village and the production scale is the largest in the country, with ten thousands tonnes of mushroom exported per year. A casting village is situated in Thanh Phu commune, Vinh Cuu district. The village currently has 8 casting shops. There is also a girdle cake village in Thanh Phu commune. Ta Lai brocade weaving village is located in Tan Phu district. Local artisans in the village are trying their best to develop their craft while still being careful to preserve the centuries-old trade of the Chau Ma ethnic minority group. Their products are sold to tourists who visit Cat Tien National Park or  to customers from Lam Dong and Binh Phuoc provinces. Ben Go village, located in An Hoa commune, Long Thanh district is well-known for its wine -making tradition (rice alcohol). The wine is now bottled. The name of Ben Go wine is trademarked and presented in the market.

Brocade weaving is a traditional craft of the Chau Ma ethnic minority group in Ta Lai commune

Sustainable development

Craft villages in Dong Nai province villages are facing many difficulties in marketing their products, accessing loans from banks, renovating their products and technologies.

The leadership of Dong Nai province has the plan to conserve and develop traditional craft villages to sell their products not only to residents in Dong Nai and other provinces but also to tourists. The province will select and give a priority to developing the most potential traditional crafts including brocade weaving, iron and bronze casting and stone carving, pottery making, rattan and bamboo weaving … The construction and development of the handicraft villages aim at sending the high quality products with beautiful design and local identity to the market. The province will intensify marketing and trademark building activities. At the same time, attractive tours to traditional craft villages will be offered to attract more tourists to the province.

Reported by M.T