The traditional Pia cake-making profession helps poor communes.

About 13km from Soc Trang city centre, Chau Thanh land is a place of convergence and interference of more than 10 cultures of ethnic minority communities living together. The work of restoring, preserving and developing activities of craft villages and traditional industries is given special attention by the district.

The entire Chau Thanh district currently has 1 craft village and 17 traditional trades operating evenly across communes and towns. Among them, the Chinese craft of making Pia cakes, sausages, and sesame seeds has become famous at home and abroad.

The history of the development of Chau Thanh district records that the Chinese Pia cake-making profession is a traditional craft with nearly 100 years of tradition. This profession is associated with the migration process of Chinese people to live in the district. Starting from Phu Tam commune and spreading to Thuan Hoa and An Hiep communes.

In the early years of the 20th century, in Chau Thanh district, several famous Pia cake establishments were established such as: Cong Lap Thanh, Hiep Thanh, Thuan Thanh, My Hiep Thanh, Tao Thanh, concentrated in Phu Tam commune, An Hiep commune and Thuan Hoa commune. These establishments have created jobs for about 300 - 500 seasonal workers in the area.

Among them, Thuan Hoa commune is the only commune in Chau Thanh district that has been in a particularly difficult situation over the past 12 years. 69% of the commune's population are ethnic minorities out of a total of over 10,000 commune residents. Some Chinese people in the commune began to develop Pia cake making, established production facilities and recruited more workers. Since then, farmers have had new jobs and more stable incomes.

Through the process of culinary interference, today's Pia cake has had many changes and diversity in processing ingredients. Up to now, traditional Pia cake products of Soc Trang province in general and Chau Thanh district, in particular, have been exported to international markets such as the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China... From here, the number of Pia cake production establishments also increased significantly. The whole province has over 30 traditional Pia cake production establishments, and Chau Thanh district alone has 24 establishments operating effectively.

In 2020, the traditional Pia cake-making profession of Phu Tam, Thuan Hoa, and An Hiep communes of Chau Thanh district was recognized as a "National Intangible Cultural Heritage". Ms. Bui My Thuan, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Chau Thanh district, said that this is one of the models to transform occupations and create effective jobs for people.

The People's Committee of Soc Trang province has implemented a project to preserve and promote the value of the national intangible cultural heritage of the traditional craft "Pia cake making" of Phu Tam commune, Thuan Hoa commune, An Hiep commune, Chau Thanh district, period 2022 - 2025. Pia cake production facilities are facilitated and supported to promote the application of scientific and technical advances and invest in advanced machinery systems in production.

Currently, Chau Thanh district has 7 OCOP products, of which 3 products have 3-star quality and 4 products have 4-star quality. Products are promoted on provincial e-commerce platforms and Postmart.vn.

According to statistics from the Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Chau Thanh district, the traditional handmade Pia cake-making profession has created regular jobs for nearly 1,400 local workers. The salary ranges from VND 5 - 15 million/worker (depending on skill level). In particular, during peak holidays, the labour force and raw material resources increase by 1.5 - 2 times compared to normal.

In addition, the monthly consumption of baking materials ranges from 50 - 100 tons, creating conditions for people to access and build raw material growing areas with stable income and sustainable poverty reduction.

To do a good job of preserving and promoting traditional crafts in the coming time, Chau Thanh district focuses on preferential loan policies and vocational training support, aiming to build a traditional Pia cake craft village.

The entire Soc Trang province currently has over 420,000 ethnic minority households, accounting for over 35% of the province's population, mainly Khmer and Chinese ethnic groups. In recent years, Soc Trang province has implemented many guidelines and policies to invest in production development and agricultural economic restructuring, agriculture; support for housing, land, career change or loans for people to develop production. To date, over 4,500 households have changed careers, and 3,000 ethnic minority workers have received vocational training, with a total cost of over VND 1,000 billion.

According to Decision No. 861/QD-TTg dated June 4, 2021, the Prime Minister, Approved the list of communes in Region III, region II, and Region I in ethnic minority and mountainous areas in the period 2021 - 2025, in Soc Trang province, which are 17 extremely difficult communes. Including Thuan Hoa commune, Chau Thanh district.

After 12 years of implementing the National Target Program to build new rural areas, in March 2023, Thuan Hoa commune was the last locality in the district to be recognized as meeting new rural standards.