Bringing cassava into cuisine to 'export'

From a simple agricultural product, thanks to persistent creativity and the application of science and technology in processing, it has helped increase the value of Vietnamese cassava.

Currently, Tay Ninh province has more than 4,524 hectares of cassava varieties resistant to mosaic disease. Photo: Tran Phi.

Cassava is a simple agricultural product, often used to fight hunger in the past, but today it is a national staple crop , used as raw material in the fields of cuisine, processing industry, biofuel, animal feed..., bringing in export revenue ranking 3rd after rice and coffee. Currently, Vietnam has become the 2nd largest exporter of cassava in the world, after Thailand.

One of the successful start-ups from cassava, helping to increase the value of the product is Tan Nhien Company Limited (Hoa Thanh town, Tay Ninh province). After nearly 10 years of research and development, experiencing many failures, up to now, Tan Nhien has launched many lines of rice paper products made from cassava flour. In particular, the most prominent is the super thin rice paper made from cassava that does not need to be dipped in water when eaten, which has been ordered by many domestic distributors.

Tan Nhien Company's super thin cassava rice paper has been exported to many countries. Photo: Tran Quynh.

From the early days of establishment, General Director of Tan Nhien Company Limited - Mr. Dang Khanh Duy has determined the goal of producing clean, safe food according to international standards to serve domestic consumers. Therefore, the Company has invested in a factory, 5 production lines meeting ISO 22000 standards and continued to be upgraded to FSSC 22000 standards, applying the most optimal, closed, modern technological processes, without food additives to create quality, consistent products, "clean from thinking to product".

This has helped many international customers come to Tan Nhien Company Limited to order rice paper. Since 2020, the Company's super thin rice paper has been present in many markets such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and in the near future there will be orders to the US.

In particular, most recently, the Company has been granted a certificate of protection in Japan, opening up further development opportunities in this demanding market.

Mr. Dang Duy Khanh said that in order to develop sustainably, towards the Netzero goal by 2050 as committed by the Government, the Company has been changing to transform itself, continuing to create new products with added value from leaves to tubers of cassava, creating jobs for local workers, contributing to the consumption of cassava in the province.

Cassava cakes with meat filling will be frozen for export. Photo: Nguyen Thuy.

Also starting his business from cassava, Mr. Mai Tuan Anh, CEO of Cusami Kitchen, said that with the desire to introduce cassava cuisine from his hometown of Cu Chi (HCMC) to people across the country and international friends, he has researched and created delicious, convenient, healthy dishes, especially for people with obesity, diabetes and metabolic disorders such as cassava cake with meat filling, cassava cake, frozen cassava pizza...

“Vietnamese people living far from home love to eat traditional cakes, but we have to ensure the standards to be able to export. Therefore, we are perfecting and will soon be able to export frozen cassava cakes with meat filling to the US market,” said Mr. Tuan Anh, adding that the goal is to export to many demanding markets, so to be more proactive in raw material sources, Cusami Kitchen will build a cassava farm that meets USDA organic standards and develop more cassava product lines so that Vietnamese people around the world can use dishes made from Vietnamese agricultural products.

On April 17, 2024, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued a decision approving the Project "Sustainable development of the cassava industry to 2030, vision to 2050". The target by 2030 is that the export turnover of noodles and noodle products will reach 1.8 - 2 billion USD. The vision by 2050 is that the export turnover of noodles and noodle products will reach about 2.3 - 2.5 billion USD.

Source: https://nongsanviet.nongnghiep.vn/dua-cu-khoai-mi-vao-am-thuc-de-xuat-ngoai-d394765.html