Vietnam’s first-ever salt festival will be held in Bac Lieu Province, southern Vietnam in April next year and is expected to contribute to the development of the salt-making craft in the province and the country as a whole.

The event will help promote local salt products and call on enterprises and organizations to make investments in the production, processing, and trade of salt.

It will also create motivation for locally-made salt to compete with salt imports in the domestic market.

At a working session with Bac Lieu authorities on Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said April is an ideal time to hold the festival as it marks the beginning of the salt harvesting season.                                    

Vietnam has never before hosted large festivals or forums for the salt sector, Nam added, assigning the Department of Cooperatives and Rural Development and the National Agriculture Extension Center to coordinate with Bac Lieu Province to prepare for the festival.

Bac Lieu is now home to over 1,400 hectares of salt fields, plunging over 48 percent since 2012, according to a provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s report delivered at the working session.

Only 767 households with 1,520 laborers are still engaging in the salt-making craft, down 749 households compared with 2012.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Van Thieu said the salt-making craft has existed in the province for nearly 200 years.

Bac Lieu’s salt products have been popular nationwide and even exported to other countries.

Its salt-making craft was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2021.

However, many salt workers have found it hard to depend on the career to earn their living.

The sector should receive greater support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and provincial agencies, Thieu added.

Bac Lieu Province proposed the ministry support the research of a salt production process in a motorized, modern and synchronous manner.

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