Buying and gathering bamboo leaves, the kind of leaves that are discarded, fall in the forest to dry for export, a small trader in Hanoi “picks” money.
The profession of picking bamboo leaves in An Phu commune, My Duc district, Hanoi has been around since the 1990s. In 1992, Mrs. Dinh Thi Dinh (58 years old, from Dong Chiem village) found that this profession gave a much higher income. selling firewood should decide to pursue.
“In the past, people in my village mainly made a living by going to the forest to cut firewood to sell. In 1990, some Taiwanese (China) came to Vietnam to work “tips”, so people in the village knew. Bamboo leaves have economic value,” Ms. Dinh said.
In the first days of her career, Mrs. Dinh bought ready-made dried leaves and sold them to small Taiwanese traders. However, due to lack of experience in preservation, the leaves are damaged.
“At that time, not all households knew how to dry dried bamboo leaves. Many times I bought damaged leaves and made a loss. After that, I switched to buying fresh leaves to dry myself,” Ms. Dinh said.
According to Mrs. Dinh, bamboo leaf-making is the busiest from May to November. When in the rainy season, the new shoots sprout, the branches and leaves are almost as big as two adult hands. At that time, dark green leaves will reach the best quality.
She said that the purchased bamboo leaves must meet the standards, the leaves must be large, not torn and not yellow. Each leaf is about 38-40cm long, 8cm wide or more.
She buys bamboo leaves with no weight limit.
On average, each crop, the family of Mrs. Dinh sells 70-100 tons of leaves, the annual revenue is estimated at several billion dongs. In Dong Chiem, in addition to Mrs. Dinh’s family, now there is one more household that also opens an agent to buy leaves.
“Taiwanese people are very fond of this leaf, they use it to wrap traditional cakes. It is said that this leaf retains its natural aroma and is clean and organic. Now, how many leaves from Taiwan also buy, there are batches of leaves. They ordered 1 container truck but the facility did not have enough to sell,” Dinh said.
During the main season, Mrs. Dinh’s workshop has about 10 workers, with an income of 50,000 – 100,000 VND/day. Trade was profitable, but Mrs. Dinh also expressed concern when there were very few people in the village to pick leaves. She regrets that this item is never “sold out”.
“Now how much, foreign traders buy them all, but now there are not many people who work as leaf pickers. If there are leaves available to harvest, the leaf pickers are not rich but earn enough money to cover their lives. In addition, The area of bamboo is gradually shrinking, the work is very hard, climbing passes and wading streams, so many people quit their jobs,” Dinh shared.
Currently, every day, Mrs. Dinh only collects a few dozen kilograms of leaves from the people in the village who go to pick them. To meet the needs of traders, she has to travel hundreds of kilometers to neighboring provinces to purchase.
At 14:00, when the sack was full of bamboo leaves, Ms. Vu Thi Thanh (69 years old) carried her back and walked more than 3km down the mountain. At 16:00 when she got home, she dipped the fresh leaves in water, then put them in the car and brought them to the collection point, the price of leaves ranges from 12,000-14,000 VND/kg, depending on the quality of the leaves.
“I went from 5am until now to collect 20kg of fresh leaves, now the leaves are less and less with my strength, so I can only fill the sack. Today, the total income is 240,000 dong,” said Ms. Thanh excitedly.
Bringing in income, but bamboo leaf pickers like Mrs. Thanh also have to trade a lot. In addition to encountering snakes and centipedes in the forest, the most dangerous is when transporting sacks of leaves heavier than body weight, from the forest to home.
“In the village now only middle-aged and elderly people go to pick leaves. One week I only try to go 4 days, the rest of the days I rest to recover. It’s better in winter, but this summer it’s very hard to carry.” Ms. Thanh said
Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)