The Bai Tu Long Bay area boasts magnificent, awe-inspiring beauty while retaining its quiet, pristine character, with a picturesque landscape of rocks, 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 significant advantages for aquaculture in general, particularly for farming Pacific oysters.
Pacific oyster farming in Van Don. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
15 years ago, the variety of Pacific oysters was brought in for research, farming and development, successfully becoming a local oyster variety in Bai Tu Long Bay itself. Since then, the oyster-farming model has been expanded by residents of the island district, turning oysters into a specialty.
Oyster harvesting. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper
The local oyster variety not only has high nutritional value and a much better taste, but also delivers outstanding productivity. As a result, the annual output of the Cong Tay and Ban Sen farming areas reaches 2,500 to 3000 tons of oysters.
Catching Pacific oysters in Quang Ninh. Photo: Business Forum.
Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
This quality and productivity are achieved through a natural, closed farming process carried out continuously along the entire chain. The waters of Van Don are also relatively calm, with many rocky reefs and high salinity, creating an ideal habitat and giving the oysters a distinctive flavor compared with those farmed elsewhere.
Oysters farmed in floating cages. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
Taking advantage of these conditions, the water surface area used to farm Pacific 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 oyster output and farming scale. Pacific oysters farmed 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 oysters with the distinctive flavor of Pacific oysters from Van Don, it is not enough to depend 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-packed products in particular are subject to extremely strict monitoring.
Ozone treatment of oysters. Photo: Quang Ninh Newspaper.
For whole oysters or fresh shucked oysters, once harvested, 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 their quality.
Oysters farmed in Bai Tu Long Bay. Photo: Brand and Public Opinion Magazine.
For oyster floss, the production line begins with removing the shells and cleaning the oysters to prevent shell fragments from breaking off, followed by rinsing them in diluted salt water to remove the slime. They are then cooked, shredded, mixed with shrimp and meat in set 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 generations of farmed oysters.
Clean oyster products. Photo: Bizmedia.
As a result, businesses not only address the issue of production waste, but also ensure that the oysters consistently meet the highest quality standards, while harvest volumes remain high.
Oyster fish 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 bứa fruit and oyster omelets…
Van Don oyster floss. Photo: Gia Phuc Foods.
Besides traditional preparation methods, Pacific oysters are also processed into a range of packaged products, such as oyster floss, grilled oysters, oyster fish sauce, oyster patties, oyster spring rolls, smoked oysters and breaded oysters…
