At a coffee meeting on the morning of December 4 with the Chairman of the Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee, a business representative said that Bac Lieu has many famous products, including salt. This province is also one of the provinces with the largest salt output in the country.
However, in recent times, salt production in Bac Lieu has faced many difficulties, leading to salt farmers producing a lot of salt but selling it at low prices, sometimes only a few hundred VND/kg, the profit is not commensurate with their efforts.
"In 2023, businesses will buy salt to make fish sauce, but the output will be less than 30%," a business representative said, worried about the province's salt industry.
Chairman of Bac Lieu province Pham Van Thieu shared at a coffee session with businesses on the morning of December 4 (Photo: HH).
Sharing with businesses and people, Chairman of Bac Lieu Provincial People's Committee Pham Van Thieu said that Bac Lieu salt has been famous for more than 200 years. Salt farmers have to endure hardship and difficulty to make salt.
Salt is a great demand of the whole country as well as the world. Mr. Thieu cited that many times the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) sent him information and images of many foreign businesses that know and like Bac Lieu salt.
The salt making profession in Bac Lieu has been recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage. However, the Chairman of Bac Lieu acknowledged that in the past, the agricultural sector mainly focused on rice and shrimp and did not pay much attention to salt.
"Salt farmers must be self-sufficient in terms of infrastructure, production, and branding. The province has not really been able to develop the salt industry, and salt farmers have not been able to make a living from salt," said the Chairman of Bac Lieu.
Mr. Thieu shared that the salt industry depends a lot on the weather. However, the weather today is very different from the past, so salt production also faces many difficulties.
"Before, the rain stopped at the end of November, but now it rains during Tet, and after Tet it rains too, more rain than sunshine. Traditional salt works in sunny weather, but when it rains, it's a loss.
Last year, there was unusual rain and sunshine. It rained 1-2 times in the middle of the day and all the salt dissolved. Salt farmers could not make a living from the salt industry, so many switched to other jobs, showing that the salt industry is not respected," the Chairman of Bac Lieu worried.
Bac Lieu is one of the largest salt producing provinces in the country (Photo: HH).
Talking about the upcoming development direction, the head of Bac Lieu province government said that in the planning, the province will retain more than 1,650 hectares of land to develop the salt industry. If the province does not preserve, protect, and encourage salt farmers to actively make salt, then in a few more terms, no one will make salt.
Bac Lieu will coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to organize a Salt Festival in 2024 to honor and promote the salt industry. The Ministry also provided 130 billion VND for the province to invest in salt infrastructure exploitation in the immediate future in Dien Hai commune (Dong Hai district), which is considered the capital of Bac Lieu salt.
"We need to restore the image of Bac Lieu salt in addition to planning the area, mobilizing salt farmers to actively participate in the salt industry, the province has investment policies, building brands with many products from Bac Lieu salt, then salt farmers can survive", the Chairman of Bac Lieu emphasized.
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