Khanh Hoa (VNA) –Seaweed farming is growing as a lucrative business in coastalprovinces, providing big income for farmers and helping improve local marineenvironment.

Vietnam nowhas about 10,000 hectares of seaweed with more than 101,000 tonnes of freshseaweed harvested annually. Seaweed is mostly grown in the coastal areas ofnorthern Vietnam (6,600 hectares) and the north central coastal region (2,000hectares) and the south central coastal region (1,400 hectares).

Seagrape, aspecies of seaweed, was first grown in central coastal Khanh Hoa province since2004 and the local area of the plant has been expanded to produce enough forexports.

Seaweedfarming has great advantages over other sea products. The plant can beharvested year-round and is less vulnerable to natural disasters like storm orflooding. It also helps clean the environment of cultivated areas, said LeNhut, chairman of Dai Duong JSC – a local seaweed supplier in Khanh Hoa.

Seagrape hasbeen exported to Japan and the EU at a price of 110,000 VND per kilogramme forfresh seagrape while the dried product is fetched three times higher than thefresh.

Manyprovinces have developed successful farming systems that cultivate seaweedtogether with fish and other species, such as shrimp, sweet snail, seacucumber, and green-clipped mussels, said Dr. Thai Ngoc Chien from the ResearchInstitute for Aquaculture No.3.

Theintegrated seaweed farming systems have proved to be more efficient andprofitable than fish-only or seaweed-only systems as seaweed helps recycle fishwastes and the fish and sea species grow faster, Chien added.

Expertsbelieved that the Mekong Delta, where aquaculture has been heavily affected bysaltwater intrusion over the past few years, should study to apply such systemsin order to reduce pollution and turn it into a sustainable livelihood forlocal residents.

Thoughseaweed farming has a very promising future in Vietnam, it faces a number ofchallenges, particularly outdated harvesting, preservation and processingtechnologies to ensure good product quality.

President ofBIOFARMS Vietnam Nguyen Huu Dung proposed the government to join hands withfarmers to study environment effects of the seaweed industry, apply advancedprocessing technologies, and look for more export markets.-VNA