Cementing Central Role in Economic Growth

Binh Thuan, with its rich resources and advantages, is poised to cultivate a robust agricultural sector. Recognizing agriculture as a cornerstone of its economic structure, the province has been proactive in implementing a multitude of resolutions and programs, which have yielded impressive results, propelling significant advancements in the province’s economic growth.

Preliminary conference on Resolution 05-NQTU on the development of a modern, sustainable, and high-value-added agricultural sector

As of now, Binh Thuan has established large-scale specialized farming areas, applying high, clean, organic technology that meets Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) and GlobalGAP standards. These include a dragon fruit production area of 27,320 hectares with an output of 605,000 tons, a rubber tree production area of 45,250 hectares with an output of 66,000 tons, a rice production area of around 120,000 hectares with an output of more than 700,000 tons, and a cashew production area of 17,820 hectares with an estimated output of 12,900 tons. Binh Thuan has also promoted seeding and the use of new varieties with high productivity, quality, and adaptability to the province’s climatic conditions for fruit trees with high economic efficiency. This has increased the average value of harvested products per hectare of cultivated land from VND80.3 million in 2021 to VND88 million in 2023. Advanced, water-saving irrigation technology is widely applied, bringing high efficiency. To date, the entire province has 26,062 hectares of crops applied with advanced, water-saving irrigation technology, reaching 20.9% of the agricultural land area that requires irrigation as planned.

In the livestock industry, there has been a positive shift from small-scale, household farms to industrial and semi-industrial farms with disease and environmental safety control. The entire province has 65 large-scale livestock farms applying high technology, ensuring biosecurity and disease safety. The province has issued disease safety certificates to 60 farms, certificates of livestock eligibility to 25 large-scale farms, and recognized 10 livestock production farms as meeting VietGAP standards.

Binh Thuan’s aquaculture sector is structured to enhance the proportion of farmed output, minimize the share of exploited yield, and reduce post-harvest losses. The annual seafood exploitation output stands at an impressive 210,000 tons.

Investments continue to pour into the aquaculture sector, fostering its development towards intensive farming and the application of high technology to boost productivity. Brackish water aquaculture has witnessed a positive shift in farming technology, with numerous high-tech white-legged shrimp farming facilities spanning over 120 hectares. These facilities, operating under 2-3 farming stages, have achieved a productivity of 25 – 30 tons per hectare per crop. The intensive farming area extends to about 300 hectares, with productivity reaching 10 tons per hectare per crop. Binh Thuan shrimp seeds continue to leverage their advantages, maintaining their market presence with an output of 25 billion post larvae per year. White-legged shrimp farming facilities in the province have adopted advanced systems for separate water and wastewater treatment, microbiological processes in farming ponds, and machines to monitor the farming water environment and automatic feeding machines. Some facilities have even implemented advanced quality management methods such as the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP), and GlobalGAP.

In addition, with the forest coverage rate of the entire province reaching 43.11% (or 55% when including industrial and perennial trees), the implementation of forest conversion, new planting, and reforestation for large timber businesses has been prioritized, contributing to the improvement of the quality and value of wood products.

Binh Thuan province has implemented numerous preferential mechanisms, measures, and policies to attract investment in agricultural production development, particularly encouraging smart agricultural projects, technical applications, and modern technology. It has established a value chain of cultivation, livestock, and processing that meets international standards, adapts to climate change, and yields high economic value. As a result, during the period of 2021-2023, Binh Thuan province attracted 10 investment projects in the fields of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries with a total investment capital of approximately VND521.03 billion. Of these, four projects have commenced business operations and six projects are under construction. To date, the entire province has 249 agricultural, forestry, and fishery projects with a total capital of VND53,148.22 billion; of which, 215 projects have stable business operations (accounting for over 86%), and 34 projects are under construction (accounting for 14%). Among them, there are 14 high-tech agricultural projects, with a total area of 1,145 hectares and a total investment of VND2,043.95 billion.

In the coming time, to continue developing modern, sustainable agriculture with high added value in accordance with Resolution 05-NQ/TU, Binh Thuan Agriculture and Rural Development Department will continue to advise the Provincial People’s Committee to implement solutions synchronously.

In addition to this, it will expedite the approval process for key product projects, including the development of area orientation maps to serve as a foundation for unified, synchronous, and focused implementation. The department will also emphasize the promotion of research, transfer, and application of scientific and technological advancements as a basis for enhancing productivity, quality, production, business efficiency, and added value of agricultural products. Priority will be given to the application of 4.0 technology to facilitate immediate digital transformation in agriculture, such as traceability, transaction, and consumption of agricultural products. The province will construct a digital database system for production (land management, digitization of growing areas, livestock areas, diseases, markets, etc.) and establish connections and share databases to serve the direction and administration of state agencies and the production and business of people and businesses.

Binh Thuan will restructure agricultural production through forms of cooperation and joint organizations, with extensive participation from businesses. It will develop a new model of cooperatives with concentrated raw material areas, proactively linking with businesses to form a value chain associated with building growing area codes, traceability, and product consumption to ensure information transparency and food safety. The province will continue to develop production linkage projects along the value chain, prioritizing businesses with capital, scientific, technological, and market capacity to participate in the project to lead the value chain to operate effectively. This will support the development of regions and clusters linking production, processing, and consuming products in areas with large output and convenient transportation and logistics.

Simultaneously, special attention will be paid to market development, focusing on the domestic market and promoting the export of key agricultural products to Japan, Korea, India, the European Union (EU), Middle East, and ASEAN. Binh Thuan will also maintain and sustainably develop the Chinese market and expand the agricultural product market to other potential territories.

Source: Vietnam Business Forum