At the working session. — VNA/VNS Photo

CẦN THƠ — The Mekong Delta city of Cần Thơ wants to enhance cooperation with SunRice, Australia’s largest rice production and distribution group, so as to improve production efficiency and income for local farmers, Chairman of the city People’s Committee Dương Tấn Hiển said on Wednesday.

In his working session with SunRice Group’s leaders, Hiển highlighted that Cần Thơ City, the hub of the Mekong Delta region, has a total rice cultivation of some 75,000 hectares which yield more than 1.3 million tonnes a year.

Last year, the city shipped 976,000 tonnes of rice abroad, up 23 per cent year-on-year, and rice export in the first quarter of this year continued to enjoy robust growth, according to Hiển.

The city will focus on developing high-tech agriculture to better product quality, and branching out more large-scale rice field to increase productivity, he said, adding it is engaging in a project to grow one million hectares of high-quality rice with low carbon footprints in the Mekong Delta until 2030.

However, Hiển pointed out that ineffective rice production has made local livelihoods in the country’s rice granary challenging, elaborating small-scale and unplanned farming has led to “bumper crops, falling prices” or vice versa.

A large-scale rice field in the Mekong Delta. — VNA/VNS Photo

Cần Thơ wishes to cooperate with SunRice, boasting considerable experience in rice plantation, management and processing, to improve local production value, he said, stressing the local administration will create favourable conditions for the group to study and develop a plant in the city for further cooperation.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of SunRice Group Paul Joseph Serra said the group, which has been present in more than 50 countries across the globe, wants to join in sustainable rice cultivation project freshly launched by the Vietnamese Government.

He expressed his hope to build a plant in Cần Thơ City, a move to help Vietnamese rice reach out the high-end markets such as the US and Europe.

The one-million-hectare high-quality and low-carbon rice cultivation project will be deployed in the Mekong Delta localities of An Giang, Kiên Giang, Đồng Tháp, Long An, Sóc Trăng, Cần Thơ, Bạc Liêu, Trà Vinh, Hậu Giang, Cà Mau, Tiền Giang and Vĩnh Long. It is part of an effort to restructure the region's production system and value chain with a focus on sustainable farming practices, higher product value, greater business and production efficiency, as well as improved livelihoods of rice farmers, in accordance with Việt Nam’s commitment to environmental protection, climate change response and greenhouse gas emission reduction. — VNS