On December 16, speaking at a press conference to announce the Vietnam Salt Festival – Bac Lieu 2025, Mr. Le Duc Thinh, Director of the Department of Cooperative Economics and Rural Development (MARD), emphasized: It is necessary to exploit the full potential and value of the salt industry, thereby improving the quality of life of salt farmers from the source of “white gold” which is the strength of the locality.
Press conference scene.
According to Mr. Thinh, Vietnamese salt has great potential with 3,200 km of coastline, 11,000 ha of production area, and high output, which can meet the needs of consumption, food processing, industry, healthcare, and beauty.
The project for the development of the salt industry in the period of 2021-2030, approved by the Prime Minister, aims to expand the salt-producing area to more than 14,200 ha, with an output of 2 million tons/year. The project also focuses on the development of clean and handcrafted salt, as well as the processing sector, with the goal of turning salt into an industry with thousands of billions of VND in revenue.
However, the current salt output cannot meet the domestic consumption demand. Salt farming in many areas is still associated with difficulties and poverty, as farmers mainly rely on manual labor, resulting in low and unstable income.
To promote the development of the salt industry, the MARD has issued a project that links the salt industry with related sectors. In particular, Decision 1325/QD-TTg has paid great attention to investing in infrastructure for key salt-producing regions. One of the main solutions to help salt farmers escape poverty is to improve the technological content of salt production.
Currently, the MARD has piloted this project in five localities and will study mechanisms to expand it nationwide. However, salt prices remain unstable due to a lack of adequate attention from authorities for a long time. In addition, the infrastructure has seriously deteriorated. Sea water intake channels to localities need to be reinvested, requiring large sums of money, while local authorities are still hesitant and afraid of investing inefficiently.
To enhance the value of Vietnamese salt, Mr. Thinh suggested learning from the experiences of other countries, such as South Korea, in terms of changing designs, packaging, and improving production quality.
The government prioritizes the import of salt only for industrial use and imposes quotas and high taxes on imported salt. However, Mr. Thinh noted that it is necessary to establish a clear traceability system to tightly manage and prevent the situation of imported salt being smuggled and sold in the market.
From March 6-8, 2025, Bac Lieu province, in coordination with the MARD, will organize the first Vietnam Salt Festival with the theme “Elevating the Value of Vietnamese Salt.”
The event is expected to feature around 100 booths from salt-producing localities across the country, introducing and displaying salt products for food and health, industrial salt, salt-related tourism, OCOP products, and equipment and technologies for salt production and processing. The festival aims to promote, preserve, and develop the salt industry, thereby enhancing the value of Vietnamese salt in general and Bac Lieu’s salt industry in particular.
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