Bạc Liêu Province plans to become country’s shrimp production hub. — VNA/VNS Photo

BẠC LIÊU — Bạc Liêu Province in the Mekong Delta plans to rank first in shrimp processing technology in the country.

According to Chairman of Bạc Liêu Provincial People's Committee Phạm Văn Thiều, the province has three main export products: shrimp, rice and salt. Accordingly, the main export product is shrimp, accounting for over 95 per cent of the province's export turnover.

Together with rice, shrimp has been identified as a key product of Bạc Liêu over the last few years, and the provincial People’s Committee has issued an action plan to carry out the National Program for the development of aquaculture.

The province is working out a plan to attract investment and select qualified products. For the period of 2022-2025, the province has set a target of building and putting a high-tech-based agriculture zone into operation for shrimp development in Bạc Liêu.

In addition, the province promotes the application of science and technology in agricultural and fishery production to increase productivity and quality to build brands for the province's export products.

The province gives priority to the development of super-intensive, intensive, and semi-intensive shrimp farms, as well as organic shrimp farms and shrimp-rice farming areas.

Recently, the fisheries industry in Bạc Liêu province has developed very quickly, bringing many economic benefits to farmers, especially the super-intensive shrimp farming model.

Currently, there are 48 export seafood processing factories in the province, with modern equipment lines and a designed processing capacity of about 294,000 tons/year. Shrimp products have been processed to meet standards and exported to markets such as the US, Japan, EU, China, Korea and many other markets around the world.

Bạc Liêu has over 157,000 ha of aquaculture, with 6,000 ha of super-intensive shrimp farms and 23,000 ha of intensive and semi-intensive farms.

As many as 480,000 tons of aquatic species are produced, with 290,000 tons of shrimp, and 190,000 tons of fish and other aquatic species.

In 2023, the province's seafood export reached US$1 billion for the first time, up 17.2 per cent compared to 2022.

It targets exporting $1.3 billion worth of seafood by 2025, and $1.7 billion by 2030. VNS