Ben Tre (VNA) - Ben Tre province is taking measures to effectivelyimprove value chains for eight key agricultural products, including coconut,green skin and pink flesh grapefruit, rambutan, longan, ornamental plants andflowers, pigs, cows, and saltwater shrimp.

The Mekong Delta province began to develop value chains for the eightagricultural products five years ago under the provincial Party Committee’sresolution on building and improving value chains for key agriculturalproducts.

Of the products, the value chains of coconut, green skin and pink fleshgrapefruit, and rambutan have been developed.

Up to 18,787ha of coconut, or 24% of the province’s total coconut area, havevalue chains.

The country’s largest coconut producing province has 52 cooperatives and 18 cooperativegroups that link with companies to form value chains for coconut.

The province has 58ha of its 3,787ha of rambutan and 374ha of its 9,442ha ofgreen skin and pink flesh grapefruit under value chains.

It has 17 rambutan growing areas that have been granted production codes forexporting to China and the EU.

Huynh Quang Duc, deputy director of the province's Department of Agricultureand Rural Development, said the province has many companies that participate indeveloping value chains and farming areas for the eight agricultural products.

The value chain of coconut has been significantly increased in scale, qualityand added value, he said.

However, the value chains of pigs, cows and saltwater shrimp have only beendeveloped in initial phases, he said.

The production scale and output of saltwater shrimp, longan, pigs, cows andornamental plants and flowers that are planted under value chains are stillsmall and have not reached the province’s targets.

Ben Tre is the delta’s largest producer of ornamental plants and flowers.

The province targets to reach a production value of 1 billion USD for coconutand saltwater shrimp in 2025, and 500 million USD for cows and ornamentalplants and flowers.

The provincial People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Agricultureand Rural Development, in cooperation with relevant departments and localities,to implement measures to further develop value chains and clean growing areasfor the eight agricultural products.

The province will boost advocacy activities to promote value chain development,will improve the operational efficiency of existing agricultural cooperativesand develop new ones for the eight agricultural products.

It will strengthen linkages among farmers, between farmers and companies, andamong companies to create stable farming areas.

It has more than 9,000ha of coconut, rambutan, green skin and pink fleshgrapefruit, longan, and saltwater shrimp that have been granted certificates ofgood agricultural practices (GAP) or organic standards./.