An organic coconut grove in Ben Tre province’s Thanh Phu district (Photo: VNA) The Mekong Delta province began to develop value chains for the eight agricultural products five years ago under the provincial Party Committee’s resolution on building and improving value chains for key agricultural products.
Of the products, the value chains of coconut, green skin and pink flesh grapefruit, and rambutan have been developed.
Up to 18,787ha of coconut, or 24% of the province’s total coconut area, have value chains.
The country’s largest coconut producing province has 52 cooperatives and 18 cooperative groups that link with companies to form value chains for coconut.
The province has 58ha of its 3,787ha of rambutan and 374ha of its 9,442ha of green skin and pink flesh grapefruit under value chains.
It has 17 rambutan growing areas that have been granted production codes for exporting to China and the EU.
Huynh Quang Duc, deputy director of the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the province has many companies that participate in developing value chains and farming areas for the eight agricultural products.
The value chain of coconut has been significantly increased in scale, quality and added value, he said.
However, the value chains of pigs, cows and saltwater shrimp have only been developed in initial phases, he said.
The production scale and output of saltwater shrimp, longan, pigs, cows and ornamental plants and flowers that are planted under value chains are still small and have not reached the province’s targets.
Ben Tre is the delta’s largest producer of ornamental plants and flowers.
The province targets to reach a production value of 1 billion USD for coconut and saltwater shrimp in 2025, and 500 million USD for cows and ornamental plants and flowers.
The provincial People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, in cooperation with relevant departments and localities, to implement measures to further develop value chains and clean growing areas for the eight agricultural products.
The province will boost advocacy activities to promote value chain development, will improve the operational efficiency of existing agricultural cooperatives and develop new ones for the eight agricultural products.
It will strengthen linkages among farmers, between farmers and companies, and among companies to create stable farming areas.
It has more than 9,000ha of coconut, rambutan, green skin and pink flesh grapefruit, longan, and saltwater shrimp that have been granted certificates of good agricultural practices (GAP) or organic standards./.
VNA
