Soc Trang in pursuit of investments

The Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang is endowed with geographic advantages to develop the agricultural and aquatic sectors. Home to famous fragrant rice with high export value, Soc Trang is calling for investment to take advantage of its promising opportunities.

Soc Trang’s natural conditions heavily benefit the agricultural and aquatic sectors-Photo: Nguyen Trung

In agricultural production, rice is Soc Trang’s stable crop with an annual growing area of 360,000 hectares, of which specialty and fragrant rice accounts for 41.5 per cent, or 148,463ha. Productivity amounts to six tonnes per hectare, while the total output is estimated at over two million tonnes.

The province encourages a large-scale paddy field model to improve productivity and efficiency. The model uses advanced technology and high-yield rice to reduce production costs, increase profits, and facilitate mechanisation. In the winter-spring crop of 2015-2016, and this year’s summer-autumn crop, the province has 263 large-scale paddy fields covering an area of 28,575ha, accounting for eight per cent of the cultivated area.

Red onion is a traditional vegetable crop and a specialty item of Soc Trang. The vegetable has been cultivated for generations, mainly in Vinh Chau town, with an area of 7,400ha and a total output of 138,500 tonnes that complies with Good Agricultural Practice (GAP). In addition to domestic consumption, red onion is exported to other markets like Thailand, India, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

The province’s sugarcane areas are mainly in Cu Lao Dung and My Tu districts. As a short-term industrial plant, sugarcane production in Soc Trang is 883,000 tonnes with an area of 9,500ha.

Fruit is another highlight in the province’s agriculture, with a total area of 29,000ha, yielding nearly 198,000 tonnes per year. Among the most profitable fruits are pomelos, oranges, and tangerines, mainly in Ke Sach, My Tu, and Thanh Tri districts, and Nga Nam town.

Soc Trang has 72 kilometres of coastline with three main estuaries, namely Tran De, Dinh An, and My Thanh. The province has conditions for developing the marine economy, especially in aquaculture. Soc Trang has a total area of 70,000ha for aquatic breeding. Shrimp farming is popular in My Xuyen, Tran De, and Cu Lao Dung districts, and Vinh Chau town, while tra fish is raised mainly in Ke Sach and Long Phu districts.

Soc Trang has the largest shrimp farming area in the Mekong Delta, with 48,000ha for brackish water shrimp. In 2016, fisheries reached an export turnover of $600 million with a total output of 236,000 tonnes, including 170,000 tonnes from farms and 66,000 tonnes from natural catches.

The province’s aquatic processing facilities have applied Vietnam’s leading techniques with an annual output of 150,000 tonnes of finished aqua-products. Among them, frozen shrimp is considered a key export product.

With regards to livestock production, Soc Trang’s cattle sector has developed in a fast and sustainable way. Under its milk development project, the dairy herd has reached 9,000 cows to produce 12,235 tonnes of milk. Evergrowth Cooperative and Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Co. (Vinamilk) inked a deal to purchase fresh milk from dairy farmers. With current daily sales volume of 30.9 tonnes per day, dairy firms help local farmers to maintain output and profits.

Soc Trang is implementing an agricultural restructuring plan towards higher value-added and sustainable agriculture by 2020. To achieve this goal, the province encourages businesses to invest in technological innovations, reorganise production, and build brand names in combination with market expansion. Soc Trang will take steps to develop specialised agriculture and create higher incomes for farmers. The plan will help raise people’s living standards, facilitate new rural development, and protect the environment.

The province has also built orientations for high-quality agricultural production and increased accessibility to the high-end market. It will focus on producing specialty rice, brackish water shrimp, artemia, dairy cows, and meat.

Soc Trang will also focus on developing a farming and collective economy, large-scale paddy field model, and commodity chain. The move aims to increase the scale of agricultural production and achieve agricultural land value of VND150 million ($6,718) per hectare .

By 2020, Soc Trang will raise its rice farming area to 330,000ha including 116,000ha of specialty rice. Productivity is amounted to 6.1-6.3 tonnes per hectare, and the total annual output is estimated at two million tonnes per year. Sugarcane area will cover 10,000ha, to produce 1.5 million tonnes per year, while red onion has a farming area of 6,500ha with output of 130,000 tonnes per year.

The province aims to have more than 30,000ha of fruit trees complying with Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practice (VietGAP) by 2020. It will develop large areas for highly-valued fruit trees, like Vietnamese roi pomelo, green-skinned pomelo, orange, durian, mangosteen, mango, and longan. Fruits will have brand names in line with the commodity chain.

Soc Trang has set a target of 17,800 dairy cows by 2020, accounting for 30 per cent of the provincial cow herd. With regards to aquatic breeding, there will be about 45,000ha of brackish water shrimp farming by 2020, like juvenile shrimp and giant tiger prawns. Among them, 30,000ha will be set aside for intensive and semi-intensive shrimp rearing with brackish water shrimp production of 105,000 tonnes.

To take advantage of its potential, Soc Trang is calling for investment from domestic and foreign companies focussing on breeding, material development, and production of agri-aqua products.

Soc Trang continues its efforts to implement administrative reforms and publicise policies to lure more investors in agricultural and aquatic sectors. Local and foreign enterprises investing in the province will enjoy support in finance, credit, land allocation, infrastructure, and science and technology. Soc Trang authorities prioritised its highly competitive agricultural products which generate more employment.

By Huu Phuc / vir