The bottleneck in agricultural consumption in Hai Phong is about to deblocked

The project is invested in by Hien Le Trading and Service Company Limited (referred to as Hien Le Company) and implemented in Ke Son village, Hung Nhan commune, Vinh Bao district, with an area of 8 ha, an expected capacity of 24,000 tons/year, and a total investment capital of VND 436.9 billion. The project was approved by the Hai Phong City People's Committee in 2021.

According to the plan, the factory will be put into operation in the second quarter of 2026. After the operation, it will create more jobs for local workers and expand the raw material-growing areas of Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, and Nam Hai Duong provinces.

The project is expected to expand the production scale to meet the needs of domestic and international markets; pre-process, process, and preserve agricultural products and food in An Hoa, Thanh Luong, and Dong Minh communes (Vinh Bao district), with a total area of 200 ha of initial raw material production area. This area is expected to increase to 300–500 ha in the future.

The project is also expected to contribute to the development of the agricultural sector of Vinh Bao district and Hai Phong city, improving the value of horticultural products, increasing the income of local people, and contributing to the successful implementation of the National Target Program on building new countryside.

Mr. Nguyen Duc Canh, Chairman of the Vinh Bao District People's Committee, said that the area of agricultural production land in Vinh Bao District is about 12,000 ha, accounting for about 67% of the district’s natural area. Agricultural gross output accounts for about 20% of the total gross output in the area.

Currently, the locality is focusing on attracting investors to develop industrial zones and clusters, projects on urban, business, and production development, and projects on high-tech agricultural production.

The project is located adjacent to National Highway 10, district road 17B, and close to National Highway 37. The project’s location has convenient traffic connections with Thai Binh, Hai Duong, and Quang Ninh provinces, the center of Hai Phong city, the seaport system, and Highway 5B. Around the factory building site are wide lands for high-tech agricultural production. The project has great significance for the district’s socio-economic development, contributing to product consumption for about 1,000 ha of agricultural production land in the district’s communes.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bao Hien, General Director of Hien Le Company, shared that the project was deployed after going through thorough surveys of the technical team and leading experts. The company's executive board selected Hung Nhan commune, Vinh Bao district, Hai Phong city to implement the construction of the project "Complex of high-tech pre-processing, processing, and preserving agricultural products and food". This is a location with many favorable conditions, such as the potential raw material area around the project, convenient transportation and logistics, etc., for the project’s development.

The investment in building the complex near large farming areas aims to meet strict requirements for the post-harvest storage time, processing process to keep the original flavor, and micronutrient content of the product offered by high-end markets.

In addition, when this complex is formed and put into operation, it is also a place to provide services for individuals and businesses that have needs for pre-processing, processing, and post-harvest preservation of agricultural products to meet the people’s needs and the general development trend of agricultural products. At the same time, when the project is put into operation, it will attract the raw material areas of neighboring provinces, such as Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, Hai Duong, etc.

"The project of Hien Le Company will contribute to promoting the development of agricultural production in the direction of concentration and high-tech application and promoting the restructuring of the agriculture sector in the direction of increasing added value and sustainable development. This project is consistent with the spirit of the Government's Resolution on the action program to build and develop Hai Phong City to 2030, with a vision to 2045. The project will also create jobs for hundreds and reach thousands of local laborers, promote the agricultural strengths available but gradually disappearing, and increase local budget revenue, "said Ms. Hien.

According to the Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, for many years, Hai Phong has had a series of mechanisms and policies to support and encourage businesses to access resources such as land, natural resources, capital, science and technology, etc., to promote activities of agricultural product processing, but the results are not as expected.

One of the main reasons is that agricultural production in Hai Phong is still fragmented; the areas of concentrated and specialized production are small; people still produce according to the movement; and the number of households engaged in agriculture still accounts for a large percentage of the population.

The facilities for pre-processing, processing, and trading animal-derived products are mainly small-scale, with simple production processes, inadequate equipment, low production of products, and limited preservation, so production and business efficiency are not high. The interest and investment in the agricultural sector of Hai Phong are sometimes not as expected or even blurred.

This has caused agricultural production in general and the processing of agricultural, forestry, and fishery products in Hai Phong in recent years to have no breakthrough, only at a completer level, causing waste of potential and great demand.

"We have a specific plan to implement the project of developing the processing industry of Hai Phong in the period of 2022–2030, bringing this field to sustainable development. Of which, there will be mechanisms and policies to attract investment, develop production, processing, and preservation of agricultural products with advanced technologies," said Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuat, Deputy Director of the Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

In 2019, the project to build a fruit and vegetable processing factory, Haphofood, in Tien Lang district was approved for investment guidelines by the Hai Phong city People's Committee with an area of 15.46ha. This project belongs to the list of key projects playing an important role in the restructuring of the port city's agriculture sector, with a total value of about VND 1,800 billion. However, in 2021, this company decided to stop investing.

The whole Hai Phong city now has only one business investing in the formation of a large-scale and professional high-tech agricultural production zone, which has been deployed since 2016. It is VinEco Co., Ltd., which has invested in a total area of 215ha in Tan Lien commune, Tam Da, with a total investment of over VND 450 billion, specializes in the cultivation of high-quality root vegetables, fruits, and leafy plants. This is also one of the major guidelines of Hai Phong City for the development of high-tech agriculture.