Reviving Quang Ninh's marine farming industry: Faith in the sea

Typhoon No. 3 (Yagi) caused heavy damage to the Quang Ninh fisheries industry, mostly concentrated in three localities with many marine farming households: Van Don, Cam Pha and Quang Yen. The typhoon not only swept away cages and fisheries products but also blew away the "land use rights" of many marine farming households.

Left empty-handed and full of debts, discouraged and desperate were the situations of many seafarers after the storm. But then they pulled themselves together to start over, determined to stick to the sea and regain what they had lost.

Time to start over

One month after the storm, Tran Van Tuan, a resident of Hoang Tan Commune (Quang Yen), started rebuilding the destroyed cages. He believes that this is the most suitable time to stock a new crop as the temperature and climate are soothing. If it is a later time, it would be too cold and the seafood would grow slowly, hence lower economic efficiency.

"The support policies this time come in a very timely manner. Right after receiving a loan of VND 500 million from the bank, I immediately bought fish seeds, reinforced the rafts, and tried to start over," said Tuan.

In Van Don district, the "capital" of marine farming, Pham Van Than’s family is one of the first five households to receive a decision from Van Don district to allocate 5,000 m² of sea area. Than's family is raising fish in cages. The farm area is within 3 nautical miles of the tidal line and is under the authority of the district.

Not only in Van Don, Cam Pha and Quang Yen, many aquaculture facilities in localities in Quang Ninh province have also started to restore production. Up to now, approximately 35% of facilities in the province have planted oysters. The number of aquaculture facilities restoring production will gradually increase if they have access to preferential loans and gain resources to recover after the storms.

Dao Van Vu, Vice Chairman of Van Don District People's Committee, said, “By October 15, the district had basically handed over sea areas to households in need of production reconstruction, totaling more than 6,000 ha of coastal areas. The entire district has had 50% of fish cages restored by households compared to the time before Typhoon No. 3 and over 50 households have planted nearly 300 ha of oysters”.

According to Tran Duc Thang, Chairman of Quang Yen Town People's Committee, this town has worked with local banks to review, extend and reschedule debts for customers in the area who suffered heavy damage due to the recent Typhoon No. 3, finding more options so farmers can have access to new loans and restore production.

“Live for the sea, get rich from the sea”

In order for the fisheries industry to recover from the damage caused by Typhoon No. 3, Cao Tuong Huy, Chairman of Quang Ninh Province People's Committee has continuously held working sessions with the government, local people and credit institutions, requesting their support and urgent implementation of support solutions for marine farming households.

"The most important thing right now is for credit institutions to defer, extend debt, reduce interest rates, and provide new loans for marine farming households that suffered damage due to the storm. The province has also proposed to the Government to amend a number of inappropriate and unprecedented mechanisms and policies so people and businesses can overcome difficulties after the storm," said Chairman Huy.

Pham Duc An, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Agribank, said that after Typhoon No. 3, the forestry and fishery sector in Quang Ninh was severely affected. Quang Ninh province and many organizations and associations of the fisheries sector have proposed support solutions to help businesses and farmers soon stabilize production.

The banking sector in particular increased the scale of the preferential credit program for the forestry and fishery sector to VND 60,000 billion, which is an urgent solution to meet the capital needs to restore production and business activities.