Co Chat silk thread in Nam Dinh

According to the village elders, the business of raising silkworms and weaving silk thread in Co Chat has existed for a long time (Photo: Vietnam+)

Made manually or by machines, Co Chat silk thread is very delicate, soft and durable and has natural bright colours(Photo: Vietnam+)

During the French domination, Co Chat silk thread was so well known that in the early 20th century the French built a factory to unravel silkworm cocoons right in the village to exploit the villagers’ professional skills and the great potential of the mulberry growing and silkworm raising area along the Ninh River (Photo: Vietnam+)

Since then, the silk thread making craft in Co Chat Village has developed substantially. Before 1954, merchants from other regions in the country came to the village to buy silk thread then sell at Do Che Wharf - a bustling port in Nam Dinh (Photo: Vietnam+)

Made manually or by machines, Co Chat silk thread is very delicate, soft and durable and has natural bright colours (Photo: Vietnam+)

Nowadays, the elders in the village are still in the habit of making silk thread using the traditional method to preserve their ancestors’ craft while the younger generation use modern machines and invest in workshops to increase the productivity of silk thread (Photo: Vietnam+)

The process of making silk thread lasts about 30 days, from silkworms eating mulberries and creating cocoons to reeling silk (Photo: Vietnam+)

The silk thread is then rolled around a tube and dried (Photo: Vietnam+)

The development of the craft of making silk thread in Co Chat provides jobs for a large number of workers in the region with an average income of about 2-3million VND/month (Photo: Vietnam+)

Some families in the village can earn more than 20million VND/month (Photo: Vietnam+)

The village’s silk thread is provided to not only workshops in the province and neighbouring areas, but also is exported to Laos, Thailand and Cambodia at a price of 850,000VND/kg (Photo: Vietnam+)