By the end of 2025, Gia Lai is projected to host around 60 craft and traditional trade villages spanning agricultural, forestry, aquatic processing and handicraft sectors.
These villages collectively encompass more than 12,000 production facilities and provide employment for nearly 24,000 rural workers, playing a key role in sustaining local livelihoods and preserving cultural identity.
However, many traditional products have struggled to remain competitive due to limitations in design, functionality and material innovation. Without creative renewal, several craft traditions risk fading into obscurity.
In response, artisans across the province are blending long-established skills with new technologies and production methods.
Woodworking shops, pottery kilns, food processors and ornamental plant cultivators are redesigning tools, adopting machinery, reorganizing operations and exploring new markets to enhance product value.
In Chánh Liêm hamlet (Xuân An commune), for example, the once-endangered craft of making traditional green rice cakes has been revitalized. Only four households once kept the craft alive, but local artisan Nguyễn Đăng Hiểu and his son began developing semi-automatic mixers, presses, cutters and packaging equipment in 2014.
Their innovations increased productivity tenfold, extended product shelf life from two days to 90 days, and opened distribution to more distant markets.
“We faced many difficulties in the early stages, it was complex and labor-intensive, but my son and I persisted”, Mr. Hiểu said. “Now our machinery operates stably and meets production requirements. Each day, our facility produces an average of two tons of green rice cakes, generating profits of over 500 million VND per year (~USD 20,800)”.
Innovation is also evident in the apricot bonsai hub of An Nhơn, where grower Bùi Văn Sanh developed a multi-stage bamboo splitting and shaping machine to replace the labor-intensive manual process of preparing plant stakes. His system enables two workers to produce about 1,500 stakes per hour with consistent quality, meeting the needs of local growers more efficiently.
Across craft villages, the common trait among artisans driving change is a willingness to think differently, take initiative and embrace technological and organizational transformation. Their efforts target core constraints such as low productivity, inconsistent quality and unstable market access.
Importantly, these innovations are not static; artisans continue to refine and adapt them to evolving demands, gradually embedding new practices into sustainable production models. This persistent process is helping traditional craft products increase in value and secure a stronger foothold in contemporary markets.