Gerda Verburg, Dutch Minister for Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality

The Netherlands’ agriculture minister will visit Pangasius and cocoa farms in Ben Tre Province today during a four-day fact-finding tour of Vietnam.

Vietnam is one of the Netherlands’ major suppliers of cocoa and fisheries products, coffee, fruit and vegetables.

Many companies in Holland, the largest cocoa processor in the world, have shown interest in buying high quality cocoa from Vietnam, the Dutch Embassy in Hanoi said in a statement.

Cocoa farming is still small and new domestically but Vietnam aims to expand it by 10 times. Cocoa can be intercropped with other plants to raise farmers’ income and improve the biodiversity.

Following Verburg’s meeting with Phat she visited Bac Ninh Province just outside Hanoi to see how rapid industrialization has influenced the water quality, thereby agriculture and horticulture production.

Bac Ninh resembles the Netherlands as it is based on a river delta, has an intensive land-use and is close to major consumption areas such as Hanoi and Hai Phong.

To protect water for farming, the Netherlands has cooperated with the Vietnamese government to set up a National Strategy for Water for Food and Ecosystems. Bac Ninh was chosen among 10 areas to try the strategy.

Following the water for cooking and ecosystems cooperation will be a joint project aiming to reduce the vulnerability of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to climate change, according to the Dutch embassy statement.

The Mekong Delta would be the worst affected area in Vietnam by climate changes, international and local officials have warned.

Tomorrow in Ho Chi Minh City, the Dutch minister will co-chair a meeting with Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development about fishery issues. They include a joint study by both countries’ agricultural ministries to make catfish farming in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta more sustainable and to reduce worldwide concerns about the environmental impact of aquaculture in the delta.

The minister’s last day in Vietnam, Wednesday, will be spent in talks about Pangasius and tuna farming, food safety and the membership of Vietnam in the international Fisheries Conventions.

Agricultural exports from Vietnam to the Netherlands last year increased by 8 percent to almost US$350 million year-on-year.

Source: Thanh Nien