Heartbroken by the sight of tens of thousands of tons of shallots left unsold and prices plummeting during harvest season, student Son Tran Minh Man researched and created a vegan fish sauce product made from shallots.
Increasing value and creating new outlets for agricultural products
Son Tran Minh Man, originally from Vinh Long, studies third year of Information Technology at Tra Vinh University and serves as Chairman of the university’s Startup Club. After witnessing farmers’ shallot harvests repeatedly result in price drops and unsold produce for many years, Man joined three other students to research and find ways to produce new products from shallots. From this, the CUHATI Project (short for “Cu hanh tim” – shallots) was born.
After much deliberation and experimentation, the student team developed the idea and solution to produce vegan fish sauce from shallots. The team’s project created a unique seasoning product while contributing to solving the promising output problem for agricultural products. The vegan fish sauce from shallots ferments completely naturally without using chemicals, serving vegetarians and people who care about natural products that are good for health.
Man shares that CUHATI vegan fish sauce applies a production process nearly identical to the traditional fish sauce formula, with the only difference being that fish is replaced with shallots and some other agricultural products. “Shallots are mixed with salt in a 3:1 ratio just like traditional fish sauce. In addition to the main ingredient of shallots, we add soybeans to increase protein content and pineapple to create natural sweetness. Salt provides the salty taste. We ferment this mixture for about 6 months. After fermentation, we cook the fish sauce to sterilize it before filtering and bottling,” Man reveals.
Even the residue after extraction is utilized to make compost, implementing a circular economy model that minimizes waste. Man and his team spent nearly a year and a half researching to create the complete vegan fish sauce product, facing many failures. However, the third-year student remained undeterred, continuing to search for research materials to create the standard formula. Currently, the Center for Analysis and Testing has confirmed that Man’s vegan fish sauce product meets quality safety standards.
Explaining the reason for creating this product, Minh Man expresses: “I want to help increase the value of shallots that farmers in my hometown grow, gradually reducing the situation of bumper harvests with falling prices, so they no longer have to ‘rescue’ shallots. I will continue researching other products from shallots, not just producing vegan fish sauce.”
Concerns from seasons of falling shallot prices
The Mekong Delta serves as a major agricultural granary for the entire country, yet it continually faces the recurring problem of “good harvests, bad prices.” Shallots, a regional specialty, are no exception. For shallots, the country has three localities that grow the most: old Soc Trang, old Tra Vinh, and old Ninh Thuan provinces.
According to the Department of Crop Production and Plant Protection (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), each year Vinh Chau (old Soc Trang) alone produces over 100,000 tons of shallots. However, during harvest season, the large supply sometimes causes thousands of tons of shallots to remain unsold, with prices at times dropping to only around 10,000 VND per kilogram. Facing this reality, Man utilizes this agricultural product to produce vegan fish sauce, both increasing value and supporting output for farmers while contributing to reducing food waste.
MSc. Nguyen Van Vu An, Director of the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Tra Vinh University, shares: “During the season, a kilogram of shallots sometimes costs only 5,000 VND. Considering just the cost of bundling and harvesting already exceeds the selling price, farmers suffer greatly.” This reality has motivated the university to issue startup “orders” focusing on local agricultural products such as coconut and shallots.
Evaluating Man’s project and team, MSc. Nguyen Van Vu An believes CUHATI has very good development potential, especially as the product carries strong regional characteristics and could become an OCOP product in the future. However, quality, consistency and technology remain limited. Therefore, investors are greatly needed to participate and support capital, technology, and distribution networks to go further.
Man and his team members do not stop at fish sauce alone. This project has researched about 5-6 other deep-processed products related to shallots, such as cough syrup, shampoo, soap, and even facial masks from shallots.
Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Minh Hoa, Rector of Tra Vinh University, notes that the success of CUHATI, along with 4 other startup projects by students and young entrepreneurs, has successfully raised capital from direct investors. This marks the first time a business incubator under a university in the Mekong Delta has achieved quite impressive results. This shows that innovation programs, creativity, and startup support at the university have gained trust and are increasingly going deeper, aiming toward the goal of establishing businesses and sustainable development.
At the capital-raising program organized recently by the Vinh Long Province Business Incubator (under Tra Vinh University), Man’s vegan fish sauce project from shallots successfully raised 1.3 billion VND in investment. Notably, while the investor bought the project, Man still retains 30% of shares and continues in the management role.
HIEU NHAN
