Bạc Liêu is expanding sustainable shrimp farming to help the country achieve its shrimp export target of US$10 billion by 2025. — VNA/VNS Photo

HCM CITY – The southern province of Bạc Liêu should focus on super intensive, high-tech shrimp farming to become the nation’s shrimp hub, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến has said.

Speaking at an investment conference this week in the capital, Bạc Liêu 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 Cà Mau, Kiên Giang and Sóc Trăng, 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.

Bạc Liêu 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.

Bạc Liêu 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.

Tiến said his ministry would help create a better business environment for investors coming to Bạc Liêu.

It would also support Bạc Liêu 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 Bạc Liêu should focus on resolving the problems faced by Việt Úc Group and enable it to soon open the Bạc Liêu 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