Participants at the seminar (Photo: VNA) Addressing the event, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee NguyenMinh Canh briefed participants on the local strength of agriculture andmaritime economy, saying that Ben Tre has paid special heed to developingand improving value chains for its key agricultural products.
Canh expressed his hope that the Chinese Consulate General will create favourable conditions for Ben Tre’s enterprises to connect withChinese partners, thus promoting the consumption of products, especiallycoconut-based products.
He called on Chinese firms to enhance investment in Ben Tre, especiallyin developing deep processing industries for agro-forestry-aquaculture products,commercial services and eco-tourism.
He suggested the Chinese Consulate General support and facilitate the export of Ben Tre's key products to China via official channels, and provideinformation related to the Chinese market, industries, policies, andregulations on import and export of goods.
Local authorities will create the most possible favourable conditions to support Chineseinvestors and partners to seek cooperation and investment opportunities in BenTre, contributing to further strengthening the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategiccooperative partnership in general and the relations betweenBen Tre and Chinese partners in particular, he stressed.
Consul General of China in HCM City Wei Huaxiang said he hopes the twosides' businesses early connect to promote the export of coconut via official channels; andfocus on building brands of agricultural products of Vietnam ingeneral and Ben Tre in particular, in the Chinese market. He also urged themto expand cooperation in tourism, science and technology.
Businesses in Ben Tre mentioned the difficulties and challengesfacing them and proposed support for them so that they can set up partnershipsand sign more consumption contracts with Chinese firms.
Chairman of the Ben Tre Business Association Tran Van Duc saidthat local enterprises are making efforts to export their products to China viaofficial channels.
According to the provincial People’s Committee, Ben Tre’s exportturnover to China reached over 360 million USD in 2021-2022, up 18.42% peryear, and accounting for 10-15% of the province’s total export value.
The province has so far developed six value chains for itsproducts, including coconut, fruit trees (green-skin pomelo, rambutan, longan),seedlings and ornamental flowers, pigs, cattle, and shrimp.
Coconut is one of the key crops of Ben Tre, with a total area ofover 78,000 ha and an output of about 800 million coconuts per year. The localityhas 17,293 ha of coconut meeting organic standards, accounting for 22.2% of thetotal area.
Ben Tre is home to 180 enterprises and nearly 2,400production and processing facilities for coconut-based products, such as productsmade from coconut husks and shells; products made from coconut meat and water.
Each year, local businesses produce nearly 50,000 tonnes of dried coconut meat,hundreds of millions of littres of coconut water, 40 million litres of cannedcoconut water, 30,000 tonnes of coconut fiber, and 12,000 tonnes of activatedcarbon./.
VNA
