In Hanoi, a large bottle of fish sauce cost about $ 1, a bottle of Red Boat 250ml is sold at supermarket Dean & Deluca in New York for $ 10.
"Chefs all over the world praise the special flavor of a small bottle of fish sauce, produced in the form of" Red Boat ", which is the beginning of an article about a fish sauce brand in The. British Economist.
What is special is that the brand of Red Boat fish sauce originated from Vietnam, and produced in Phu Quoc.
Quit 16 years at Apple to fish sauce
Cuong Pham and his parents came to the United States in 1979. The family lived in California and later became an engineer at Apple for 16 years.
However, while living in America, his mother could not find the fish sauce - a traditional Vietnamese spice and this made her feel deeply in her hometown.
In addition, after learning, Cuong Pham discovered that there are many products in the US are imitation of companies in Thailand.
Therefore, Cuong Pham decided to return to Phu Quoc to start his own fish sauce company branded Red Boat. At that time, he brought the desire to bring Phu Quoc fish sauce right into the United States as well as restore the lost family tradition of the family.
The name of Red Boat, as explained by Cuong Pham, is associated with the image of a fishing boat and red symbolizes the enthusiasm, luck and aspirations of the Asian concept.
If fish sauce had not previously appeared in Western meals, now things have started to change with the flavor that no other spice can bring.
In Vietnam, statistics show that more than 95% of households use fish sauce in their daily meals. In Thailand, fish sauce called "nam pla", Cambodians called "tik trey" and "patis" are used in the Philippines.
Phu Quoc is famous for producing premium fish sauce, as well as Bordeaux wine region of France. On the visit of the fish sauce factory of Cuong Pham in the center of Duong Dong town, you can smell the fish sauce from far, although not see the factory.
Mermaid business motto like ... making software
Stepping inside the factory is about 85 wooden crates measuring 1.5-3m in diameter, 2-4m high, containing about 12 tons of anchovies (small, delicious and high protein). Taken from the Gulf of Thailand and marinated in sea salt (this process called chop).
Standard incubation with fish sauce in Phu Quoc is 12 months, up to 15 months. After this time, the fish sauce was withdrawn: Initially the fish sauce with protein over 30, followed by the fish sauce with the protein over 20. After pulling the protein in the submersible, the new fish sauce Re-blended to a standard protein level.
As a person with many years of experience at Apple, Cuong Pham's business philosophy is to always put quality first.
He said: "I think simple, fish sauce business is like making software. You have to really understand and create the right product for the consumer, the new product is favored. Then there is the distribution, marketing the product. But first of all it must be a good product. "
The evidence is that if normal, fish sauce (also called fish sauce is very high protein, sweet, straw yellow to light yellow, clear and smell characteristic) rarely sold on The market that is often used by tankers to fight with other low-protein fish sauce for commercial fish sauce products, Cuong Pham decided to directly sell fish sauce to the market.
In addition, in order to keep up with the traditional flavor, he gave the right formulas 200 years ago of Phu Quoc to 12 months, instead of shortening 10 months as some barrels to run for profit.
"People think I'm crazy," said Cuong Pham. The same reason that the production of fish sauce brand Red Boat is only about 3,000 liters per barrel. However, in return, what Red Boat has is the quality of premium products.
Only export, sell 10 times the price of domestic products
Due to its superior quality, Red Boat can sell 3 times higher price than its US competitor. Specifically, the Red Boat is priced at $ 10 instead of $ 3 as the regular fish sauce companies. However, it contains more protein and has a stronger flavor.
As compared to the domestic market like in Hanoi, each large fish sauce costs about $ 1, a bottle of Red Boat 250ml is sold at supermarket Dean & Deluca in New York for $ 10.
Currently, Red Boat is available in the United States to expand to France, Australia, Singapore, Europe and Hong Kong, but especially you can not buy this type of fish sauce in the market or supermarket in Vietnam by the whole production. All products are exported.
Generally though the original idea was just to please the mother but in fact the brand of Red Boat fish sauce of Cuong Pham has been a lot of chefs throughout the Pacific and Europe preferred.
By Van Dam
Tri Thuc Tre
