The 2025 Vietnam Salt Festival - Bac Lieu has ended in the joy of salt makers and the expectations placed on salt grains. What can be done to increase the value of salt grains and help salt farmers get rich? This is really an issue that needs to be discussed after the Festival.
Salt farmers in Hoa Binh district harvest salt on a tarpaulin-covered yard.
SALT FAMOUS
Since the Lunar New Year, the hot weather has been very favorable for salt farmers to speed up the salt harvest, especially to serve the Vietnam Salt Festival - Bac Lieu 2025. After the Festival, many businesses and tourists know more about the value of Bac Lieu salt, which is a resource that has become a famous "specialty" at home and abroad, bestowed by nature. Bac Lieu salt has a pinkish-white color, dry grains are firm and have no mixed odors. Based on this advantage, many provinces and cities that want to have delicious dishes must import Bac Lieu salt for processing. Because only Bac Lieu salt can create specialties and enhance the flavor and aroma when marinated, such as Rach Goc crab dish in Ca Mau province or Phu Quoc fish sauce of Kien Giang province made from Bac Lieu salt, which are famous at home and abroad, are typical examples.
Mr. Tran Van Thua - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Diem Dien Cooperative (Dong Hai district) excitedly said: "The Salt Festival is held in Bac Lieu, salt farmers are very excited because the salt profession is honored, but what salt farmers need after the Festival is for the salt price and the output of salt grains to be more delicious and sustainable. The salt making profession in Bac Lieu has been recognized as an intangible cultural heritage, so farmers must be well-off and rich to be satisfied". As for Mr. Ho Minh Chien - Chairman of the Board of Directors of the High-tech Salt Production Cooperative in Dong Hai district: "Hopefully through the Festival, salt grains will have a higher price, the consumption market will be easier, salt makers will be able to make a living from their profession and continue to preserve and develop the traditional profession".
Industrial shrimp farming models intertwine with salt production areas in Dong Hai district. Photo: KT
NEED FOR DEEP RESTRUCTURING
With nearly 1,500 hectares, Bac Lieu is considered the locality with the largest salt production area in the country. Although the salt production profession does not bring high value, it still attracts more than 770 households to participate in production and contributes to creating jobs for over 800 workers. Solving the problem of increasing the value of salt grains in the direction of sustainable development does not stop at increasing added value, but also focuses on resolving challenges and risks that directly affect the development of the salt profession. Therefore, it is necessary to have scientific topics or research works on ensuring the quality of Bac Lieu salt grains.
The most obvious challenge is that the development of the salt industry is facing pressure on infrastructure, which is sharing the water supply with the development of industrial shrimp through intra-field canals, while the current industrial shrimp farming models have no planning and are intertwined with salt production areas! If the polluted wastewater from shrimp fields is used for salt production, will it affect the original quality of Bac Lieu salt grains? This is an issue that is not given much attention, but it really becomes a big challenge that determines the quality and services exploited from salt grains such as: salt for medical use, salt for tourists to soak, soak their feet or other foods made from salt. Because the basic principle in production is that clean products must be guaranteed from the source and salt grains are produced mainly from water through crystallization.
Another important issue is to increase capital investment for salt farmers or cooperatives with special credit policies, because to produce salt spread on canvas to shorten the harvest time by 3-4 days compared to traditional production, to create white salt that can be sold at a high price, investment capital is required. And another "bottleneck" that makes the name of Bac Lieu salt grains somewhat "inferior" to the shrimp salt products of Tay Ninh province is that the management sector and businesses do not care and have a communication and promotion strategy for salt grains. While Tay Ninh is a province without a sea and is not the "capital" of the shrimp industry, when it comes to shrimp salt, domestic and foreign consumers immediately think of Tay Ninh salt instead of Bac Lieu shrimp salt!
Bac Lieu has approved the Project to improve the value of salt production and processing in the period of 2021 - 2030, with the goal of maintaining a stable salt production area of about 1,500 hectares by 2030. At the same time, the province also set a goal of focusing on exploiting and developing the "Bac Lieu Salt" brand certified with geographical indications associated with tourism development and considering this a solution to improve the efficiency and sustainable development of the Bac Lieu salt industry. To achieve the set goal, the implementation of this Project needs to focus on solving the above-mentioned shortcomings and restructuring the salt production industry towards further strengthening science and technology. Currently, the salt field infrastructure has been invested and the most important thing to do now is to focus on creating a breakthrough for salt grains through the development of food processing technology. Why is salt water for mouthwash priced at more than 20,000 VND/bottle and the raw material only stops at a few hundred grams of salt with a value of a few hundred VND? The problem of increasing the value of salt grains through deep processing must be considered a priority solution to affirm the competitive position of Bac Lieu salt grains and help salt farmers truly get rich from salt making. Then, after the sunny months, what will be done with the nearly 1,500ha of salt production area to promote land resources or will it be left idle?…
The 2025 Vietnam - Bac Lieu Salt Festival has come to an end, but the desire to get rich from salt has been ignited. Looking at the salt flowers blooming and sparkling under the scorching sun of March promises a bumper crop, and after this Festival, salt farmers will have the opportunity to get rich from salt!
KIM TRUNG
Source: https://www.baobaclieu.vn/festival-nghe-muoi-viet-nam-bac-lieu-2025/hau-festival-nghe-muoi-viet-nam-bac-lieu-nam-2025-nhieu-ky-vong-nang-cao-gia-tri-hat-muoi-99676.html
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