コロナ対策で伝統の線香作りに影　旧正月控えるベトナム

【ハノイＡＦＰ＝時事】ベトナムの「線香村」では、２月１日から始まる旧正月「テト」に向けて、鮮やかなピンク色の線香作りに大忙しだ。だが、新型コロナウイルス対策の厳格な規制のために、その輝きが色あせつつある。（写真はベトナム・ハノイ郊外のクアンフーカウ村で、乾燥させた線香を集める女性）
　ハノイ郊外のクアンフーカウ村は、１月に一年で最も忙しくなる。竹を削って細い芯材を作り、ピンク色に染めて乾燥させ、最後に香料を付ける──線香作りのこうした工程には１００年以上の歴史がある。
　グエン・ティ・ルーエンさん（５９）は、「昨年と比べて今年の売り上げは３０％減りました」と語る。
　少なくとも３か月続いたコロナによるロックダウン（都市封鎖）で、製造、物流、小売りは大きな打撃を受けた。
　「いつもならトラックが私たちの商品を各地へと運ぶのですが。今年はコロナ対策のためにトラックによる配達ができないのです」とルーエンさん。
　「早く今まで通りになるよう願うばかりです」【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/01/26-12:22）

Vietnam's incense village is dazzling pink as workers prepare the fragrant sticks for the Lunar New Year holiday, but strict rules to stop the spread of Covid-19 are dulling its lustre.
January is usually the busiest time of year for workers in Quang Phu Cau village on the outskirts of Hanoi, where the tradition of making incense goes back more than a century.
As Vietnam's Tet new-year holiday approaches -- this year it begins on February 1 -- sales tick up with throngs of people crowding into temples to light incense during worship, or burn the sticks on the ancestral altar at home.
But while villagers are busy dyeing, drying and whittling bamboo bark to make the sticks, they complain that business is slow.
I think our sales must have dropped by 30 percent compared with the same period last year, says Nguyen Thi Luyen, 59.
Communist Vietnam reported economic growth for 2021 of just 2.58 percent -- its lowest in three decades -- as the country endured draconian restrictions to fight the pandemic.
Production, supply chains and businesses were seriously hit as almost the entire country went into lockdown for at least three months.
Things have started to improve, but the consequences remain.
Normally, there would be trucks carrying our products from central provinces and border provinces. This year, due to pandemic preventive policy, trucks cannot carry goods there, Luyen told AFP.
Quang Phu Cau is among several places dotted across Vietnam making the sticks, the scent of each batch carefully tailored to suit the tastes of the regions where they will be sold.
Most households in the village are involved in the ancient trade, from cutting bamboo planks and dipping thin strips into pink dye to coating the dried sticks in an aromatic paste.
We really hope things will come back to normal soon, Luyen said.