Japanese businesses have expressed interest in investing in organic agriculture and agricultural tourism in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.

Toshitsugu Hagihara, general director of Hagihara Company, one of Japan’s leading businesses in organic agriculture, told local leaders at a meeting on Tuesday in An Giang that his company wants to grow musk melon in glasshouses in the province using cutting-edge Japanese technologies.

The company will analyse soil samples from An Giang and then propose a suitable cultivation process, and later send experts to the region to teach specialised farming techniques to local farmers, Hagihara said.

If it is effective, the company will build factories to process the farm produce, and push agricultural products grown in An Giang into the Japanese market through supermarket chains.

Although An Giang has favourable conditions for organic agriculture, local farmers have yet to fulfil the requirements for organic agriculture, he said.

Koichiro Abe, director of Raycean Company, said Raycean and Hagihara are confident of becoming An Giang’s important and long-term partners in organic agriculture and agricultural tourism, which will help raise the competitiveness of local farm produce.

Vuong Binh Thanh, chairman of An Giang Province’s People’s Committee, assured the Japanese companies that local authorities would do their utmost to help the businesses with legal procedures, promotions and technology transfer.

A low-cost labour force and low production costs would be the advantages of setting up business in An Giang, he pointed out, despite the region’s limitations in infrastructure.

A project to transfer technologies between An Giang and Hagihara is expected to be implemented this year, under which four musk melon farms will be set up in Tinh Bien, Chau Doc, Chau Thanh and Thoai Son districts. — VNS