Bac Lieu is expanding sustainable shrimp farming to help the country achieve its shrimp export target of US$10 billion by 2025. — VNA/VNS Photo
The southern province of Bac Lieu should focus on super intensive, high-tech shrimp farming to become the nation’s shrimp hub, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien has said.
Speaking at an investment conference this week in the capital, Bac Lieu City, he said the province should focus on improving its business environment and establishing close links with the rest of the Mekong Delta, especially with neighbouring provinces like Ca Mau, Kien Giang and Soc Trang, and with HCM City for both production and selling.
It should apply the climate change model to shrimp farming to take advantage of the weather and market demand, he said.
“To achieve the goal, the province must sustain clean production with high-quality products and new technologies.”
He called on local authorities to improve infrastructure and logistics to enable shrimp farming and processing.
They should focus on developing human resources and addressing long-term weaknesses like lack of transparency and support for enterprises and dynamism, he added.
Bac Lieu is strongly impacted by climate change and rising sea levels and soon needs solutions to ensure economic development and social welfare.
Aquaculture in the province, particularly high-tech shrimp farming, has developed well in recent years because of investments in various farming models, according to its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The province has 13 companies that have invested in high-tech shrimp farming models such as intensive farming to Vietnamese good agricultural practices (VietGAP) standards and super-intensive shrimp farming.
Other models like breeding shrimp in the dry season and growing rice in the rainy season in the same rice field and the breeding of shrimp in mangrove forests have proven efficient and helped protect the environment.
The province’s fisheries output in the first seven months of this year was 403,000 tonnes, including 203,000 tonnes of shrimp, which exceeded its target, according to its People’s Committee.
Bac Lieu has 131,000ha of aquaculture ponds, including more than 123,000ha of shrimp farms.
With a coastline of 56km, it also has brackish water suited for breeding aquatic species, but suffers from the impacts of climate change, rising sea levels and disease outbreaks, according to the People’s Committee.
Tien said his ministry would help create a better business environment for investors coming to Bac Lieu.
It would also support Bac Lieu with research and techniques for treating waste created from farming shrimp using super-intensive, intensive and semi-intensive farming models to reduce pollution, he said.
He said Bac Lieu should focus on resolving the problems faced by Viet Uc Group and enable it to soon open the Bac Lieu Agricultural High-tech Application to develop a shrimp centre and a shrimp farm, forming a closed loop between shrimp seed and export.
The goal of building it is to attract investment from all quarters in hi-tech shrimp farming, and thus help supply the shrimp industry with products offering high productivity, quality and efficiency and added value.
It would be a basis for replication in other high-tech farming areas in the province and elsewhere in the country, contributing to achieving the country’s shrimp export target of US$10 billion by 2025. – VNS