Three bunches of ripe bananas, dozensof shiny green guavas, about half of kilo of freshwater shrimp, aroundone kilo of freshwater crab, and ‘morning glory’ vegetables—have allsold out several minutes after sellers showcased them at an open-airmarket.
Of those goods, fruits and vegetables were picked from sellers’gardens, and the other items, including freshwater crab and shrimp,were netted from surrounding ponds and rice fields near and far. Allare fresh.
Also, they are trading hands at reasonable prices as sellers and buyersall live nearby or right next to the market, which, as such marketsoften do, takes place in the centre of a village, though some of thecustomers venture to market from neighbouring localities a bit furtheroff.
The market hours of activity are not long—perhaps between 5 and 9 inthe morning. Buyers and sellers, aside from trading, keep each otherup-to-date with the latest news, gossip and even rumours they happenedto bring with them from their residential quarters or somewhere else.
Morning talks are sometimes heard being loudly exchanged from one foodstall to the next, while serving up morning snacks like “banh duc”(plain rice flan), “bun oc” and “bun cua” (noodles with snail or withcrab meat), “banh cuon” (steamed rolled rice pancakes), or “pho”(noodles with beef or chicken).
Every year, the market becomes the most crowded during the lead up tothe traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, welcoming new visitorswho have travelled from afar—from where they are studying orworking--to reunite with their families on this most special of allVietnamese holidays.
As the years have passed, village market has grown, offering a moreabundant variety of commodities, visibly reflecting how the lives ofthe villagers have changed.
The market described above could be almost any traditional villagemarket anywhere in Vietnam , kept alive in the mind of so manyVietnamese, in a country where 70 percent of the population live inrural areas. Such markets have become an inseparable--andindispensable--part of the nation’s rural culture.
Rural markets account for 76 percent of all markets everywhere inVietnam . However, in the absence of a development strategy for thesemarkets, most of them are organized spontaneously, causing difficultiesfor market regulators.
To deal with the situation, a senior official from the Institute forRural Development Strategies and Policies has voiced the need forrelevant agencies to take the local character of each market intoaccount whenever they intend to open a new market./.
Of those goods, fruits and vegetables were picked from sellers’gardens, and the other items, including freshwater crab and shrimp,were netted from surrounding ponds and rice fields near and far. Allare fresh.
Also, they are trading hands at reasonable prices as sellers and buyersall live nearby or right next to the market, which, as such marketsoften do, takes place in the centre of a village, though some of thecustomers venture to market from neighbouring localities a bit furtheroff.
The market hours of activity are not long—perhaps between 5 and 9 inthe morning. Buyers and sellers, aside from trading, keep each otherup-to-date with the latest news, gossip and even rumours they happenedto bring with them from their residential quarters or somewhere else.
Morning talks are sometimes heard being loudly exchanged from one foodstall to the next, while serving up morning snacks like “banh duc”(plain rice flan), “bun oc” and “bun cua” (noodles with snail or withcrab meat), “banh cuon” (steamed rolled rice pancakes), or “pho”(noodles with beef or chicken).
Every year, the market becomes the most crowded during the lead up tothe traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival, welcoming new visitorswho have travelled from afar—from where they are studying orworking--to reunite with their families on this most special of allVietnamese holidays.
As the years have passed, village market has grown, offering a moreabundant variety of commodities, visibly reflecting how the lives ofthe villagers have changed.
The market described above could be almost any traditional villagemarket anywhere in Vietnam , kept alive in the mind of so manyVietnamese, in a country where 70 percent of the population live inrural areas. Such markets have become an inseparable--andindispensable--part of the nation’s rural culture.
Rural markets account for 76 percent of all markets everywhere inVietnam . However, in the absence of a development strategy for thesemarkets, most of them are organized spontaneously, causing difficultiesfor market regulators.
To deal with the situation, a senior official from the Institute forRural Development Strategies and Policies has voiced the need forrelevant agencies to take the local character of each market intoaccount whenever they intend to open a new market./.
