(Photo)Developed five types of frikake seasonings. These are made from black sesame seeds, dried fish, wild pepper, and others spices.

Rusk, frikake seasoning , herbs for footbath, banana chips, etc.

People in the villages of Nam Giang district, Quang Nam province in central Vietnam, are developing products with the idea of not only how to utilize local resources, but also what their potential consumers expect.

One of the products developed based on the idea is frikake seasoning, a dry Japanese seasoning made with black sesame seeds. It is a good accompaniment for rice, and sesame seeds frikake is popular in Japan. Compared to Japanese ones, the seeds in this area are much smaller, but have a deep aroma. Some villages in the district have grown the seeds for a long time and sold at a low price to residents in lowland.
Recently, the number of double-income families is increasing in the cities and they bring a lunch box for lunch rather than buying street food or having lunch at home. Having considered these busy people and tourists seeking unique souvenirs, people in Nam Giang district came up with the idea that there would be a business chance with frikake seasoning. In test sale in Hanoi, not only Vietnamese, but also western people purchased the product for fun.

Next example is Rask. This product was chosen because foreigners were accustomed to eating it. The package is also designed with the aim that foreign tourists would choose the product as fashionable souvenirs. Toppings are sesame seeds, wild pepper, raw honey, etc.

Including prototypes, more than 100 products are developed so far. In addition to selling to tourists visiting Nam Giang district, they opened a store at the Quang Nam Province Ethnic Festival introducing ethnic minority culture regularly held in Hoi An. Products are also sold at souvenir shops in Da Nang city now. The FIDR staff is involved in designing the package and collaboratively working on product development with village people.