Interesting facts to know about Kim Son seagrass villages

On the narow street to Phat diem Stone church in Kim son(ninh binh), you will be surprised to see abundance of handbags, hats, box, slippers, flowers,.. all made from seagrass.

People in kim son have lived in these seagrass villages for hundred years and it seems that each one of them is professional and original craftman. The planting and processing seagrass here to make them attractive and fashionable product are famous not only in Vietnam but also to foreign countries. Many products are becoming more and more popularr with foreign customers.

Planting, knitting and weaving seagrass have become an tradition in Kim Son. This is a neccessity for workers’ life here. This job does not has a tradition as long as some other handicraft jobs such as weaving, embroidering, carving and carpenter in Ninh Binh; however, it has been together with many generations on the way earning their life

From the pre-exploitation period of Nguyen Cong Tru, the seagrass here grew together with mangrove trees in wide deserted area. The seagrass tree growing in deserted area has small top and wider to the root in three dimensions. This type is used to weave crude mat or seagrass carpet. While the seagrass planting in the field is taken care carefully and has round body from root to top. This type of seagrass are used for high-class products. Some years ago, seagrass products of Kim Son are mainly exported to Eastern Europe but the market has become wider from Japan, China,.. to America, Demark and Arab,..

The seagrass tree has similar growing cycle like rice. There are two times in one year to collect seagrass from the field that are May and October in lunar calendar. The process to plant seagrass goes from tilling the soil, drying for some days, sluicing the water, planting, collect the weed, pumping mud into the field and fetilizing it. The quality of the seagrass depends alot on regulating the ratio between salt and freshwater. The irrigation system is also very important.

To have a product qualifying for export, the process from planting to creating seagrass products is thoroughly and exactly done.

Notably is the technique to use Polyascera glue to spray on the face of the seagrass products not only help fixing the shape but also increasing the anti-mildewed capibility of the products. This helps a lot in assuring the quality and enhancing the competitiveness in market.

Until now, seagrass product of Kim Son has been to more than 20 countries territories all over the world.