The Bai Tu Long Bay area has magnificent, majestic beauty while retaining its quiet, pristine character, with a picturesque landscape of rock, water, and sky. It is home to a famous export specialty: Pacific oysters.
Pacific Oyster Specialty in Van Don
The sea area of Van Don District covers approximately 1,600 square kilometers and includes more than 600 large and small islands. It has major advantages for aquaculture in general, especially for raising oysters.
Raising oysters in Van Don. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
15 years ago, the variety of Pacific oysters was brought in for research, farming, and successful development into a local oyster variety right in Bai Tu Long Bay. Since then, the oyster-farming model has been expanded by residents of the island district, turning oysters into a specialty.
Harvesting oysters. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper
The local oyster variety not only has high nutritional value and a much better taste, but also delivers outstanding yields. As a result, the annual output of the Cong Tay and Ban Sen farming areas reaches between 2,500 and 3000 tons of oysters.
Catching oysters in Quang Ninh. Photo: Business Forum.
Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
This quality and productivity are achieved through a natural, closed-loop farming process carried out continuously along the entire chain. The waters of Van Don are relatively calm, with many rocky outcrops and high salinity, creating an ideal habitat and giving the oysters a distinctive flavor compared with those farmed elsewhere.
Oysters raised in floating cages. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
With these advantages, the water surface area used to raise oysters in Van Don’s waters has gradually expanded since 2012. Today, Van Don District is considered the country’s largest area in terms of output and scale. Oysters raised in Van Don are considered rich in protein, zinc, and beneficial micronutrients, making them good for health.
Hanging lines for oyster farming. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
To produce fresh, delicious products imbued with the flavor of Pacific oysters from Van Don, it is not enough to rely only on the oyster variety, environment, and farming process. Harvesting, preliminary processing, and preparation must also strictly meet the criteria through to storage and transportation to consumers. Export-packaged products are monitored especially rigorously.
Ozone treatment of oysters. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
For whole oysters or fresh shucked oysters, after harvesting, they are quickly cleaned of algae and moss and rinsed in an ozone tank, allowing them to be stored for 10 days after packaging while maintaining quality.
Oysters raised in Bai Tu Long Bay. Photo: Brand and Public Opinion Magazine.
For oyster floss, the production line begins with shucking and cleaning to prevent shell fragments from breaking off, followed by rinsing in diluted salt water to remove the slime. The oysters are then cooked, shredded, mixed with shrimp and meat in the appropriate proportions, and packed into jars for pasteurization.
Strict preliminary processing. Photo: Brand and Public Opinion Magazine.
To ensure quality, oyster-farming businesses also reuse the oyster shells themselves. Clusters of shells are tied together with fishing line and lowered into the sea at the farming rafts, where they become habitats for subsequent batches of farmed oysters.
Clean oyster products. Photo: Bizmedia.
In this way, businesses not only address the problem of production waste but also ensure that the oysters consistently meet the highest quality standards, while keeping harvest volumes high.
Oyster sauce. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
Oysters can be prepared into many different dishes, including familiar ones as well as newer creations such as oysters cooked in soup with sour garcinia fruit and oyster omelets…
Van Don oyster floss. Photo: Gia Phuc Foods.
Besides traditional preparation methods, Pacific oysters are also processed into a variety of packaged products, such as oyster floss, grilled oysters, oyster sauce, oyster patties, oyster spring rolls, smoked oysters, and breaded oysters…
