Sustainable development of marine aquaculture - avoiding conflicts with other economic sectors

Marine aquaculture plays a particularly important role in developing the marine economy , aiming to turn our country into a strong maritime nation. However, the development of Vietnam's marine aquaculture industry needs to be in the direction of reducing emissions and green growth, according to Vietnam's international commitments.

Việt Nam có nhiều lợi thế để phát triển ngành nuôi biển.

Vietnam has many advantages to develop marine farming industry.

Marine farming must be associated with environmental protection.

Recently, the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have issued a number of policies and programs to encourage and promote marine aquaculture. Thanks to this, the marine aquaculture industry has been initially formed in Vietnam, such as infrastructure for seed production areas, concentrated farming areas, supporting industries, processing industries, and consumer market development...

From a local perspective, Mr. Nguyen Minh Son - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quang Ninh province said that Quang Ninh is one of the localities possessing many available strengths to develop the marine economy and fisheries with more than 2,000 large and small islands, a 250 km long coastline running from Mong Cai to Quang Yen, 40,000 hectares of tidal flats, over 20,000 hectares of bays and straits... Up to now, the marine aquaculture industry of Quang Ninh has achieved certain results. In 2023, the total aquaculture area reached 42,292 hectares; of which: inland farming reached 32,092 hectares, marine farming reached 10,200 hectares.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Son, the locality's highest goal is to sustainably develop the marine aquaculture industry, attract investment and create new products for marine tourism, taking advantage of the province's abundant resources. Quang Ninh has identified its advantages in developing the marine aquaculture industry, with the policy of avoiding conflicts with the tourism industry and instead creating added value; using environmentally friendly materials and applying higher standards for marine aquaculture activities. Quang Ninh has planned aquaculture for each village. "All marine aquaculture households are reviewed. From there, households planning to change their occupation can be assigned a marine area to switch from exploitation to aquaculture," Mr. Nguyen Minh Son shared.

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan - Director of the Department of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that marine aquaculture plays a particularly important role in developing the marine economy, aiming to turn our country into a strong marine nation, rich from the sea in the century of seas and oceans. "The potential and advantages for developing marine aquaculture in our country are there. But if we want to go far, if we want to create a strongly developing ecosystem, we still have many difficulties that need to be resolved, especially in terms of technology and policy mechanisms in licensing sea surface allocation".

No locality has been able to hand over the sea area yet.

Vietnam has three sides bordering the sea, nature has given many advantages to develop the marine economy. However, the development of marine aquaculture in our country still faces many limitations due to the lack of policy mechanisms, science and technology; issues such as production linkage, investment resources and the issue of granting codes for farming areas to serve sustainable marine aquaculture development have not been thoroughly resolved.

Sharing about this issue, Mr. Nguyen Huu Dung - Chairman of the Vietnam Seafarming Association said that one of the main difficulties that seafarming enterprises are currently facing is that up to now, no locality has been able to hand over sea areas to enterprises and fishermen for management. "This is a big barrier, making it difficult for enterprises to invest in this field due to licensing and legal issues. Many enterprises have faced difficulties for many years," Mr. Dung shared.

Along with that, the source of specialized human resources for the marine aquaculture industry is still limited because there is no specialized training program for marine aquaculture. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has not yet had a program to encourage coastal people to access high technology. The lack of regulations and standards for marine aquaculture has caused no units to register marine farms. On the other hand, the high risks in marine aquaculture are high but there is currently no insurance for this field, so many businesses are hesitant and have not committed to the sustainable marine aquaculture industry. From this reality, it can be seen that attracting investment for the marine aquaculture industry still faces many challenges, requiring close coordination between ministries and branches as well as flexible and effective policy solutions from local management levels.

According to Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, the biggest bottleneck of the marine aquaculture industry is bringing the scale of seed production into the industry. Therefore, it is necessary to combine institutes and schools with the participation of businesses to research and deploy seeds on a larger scale. In addition, cooperation is needed to research environmentally friendly raw materials, associated with low emissions, ensuring the lowest feed conversion ratio discharged into the environment as well as integrating objects in the circulation, nutrient cycle... Mr. Luan believes that the space for aquaculture development should not be limited by "highlighted" plans but should go beyond boundaries, integrating with other economic sectors such as tourism.

Chairman of the Vietnam Marine Aquaculture Association Nguyen Huu Dung shared that in Norway, businesses have to bid for marine farming areas and even have to mortgage the sea to finance marine farming. Thus, perhaps Vietnam needs to consider the suitability of this approach, thereby creating a development environment for the marine farming industry.

Regarding the issue of insurance policies for the marine farming industry, Mr. Tran Dinh Luan said that our country has piloted shrimp and pangasius insurance. In the long term, this will be the foundation for the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and related ministries and branches to create conditions for marine farming enterprises to register for suitable insurance packages.

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