Organizing the first Vietnam Salt Industry Festival

Enhancing the value of Vietnamese salt

Mr Luu Hoang Ly, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Lieu province, said: After working with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Vietnam Salt Industry Festival – Bac Lieu 2024 called “The one hundredth year old journey of salt making - A person's life”; with topic “Enhancing the value of Vietnamese salt”. The main events of this festival will be held for 3 days, from 26 to 28/12/2024.

The festival has 30 main contents. Specifically, 25 contents will be performed by the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province and 5 contents will be coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Besides, 10 main activities of this Festival includes: 

• Bac Lieu salt field survey program and inauguration ceremony of Dong Hai salt field infrastructure upgrading project, Dong Hai district with the opening ceremony of the Vietnam Salt Industry Festival – Bac Lieu 2024.

• The fair displays and introduces products and trade shows for provinces, cities, businesses, and cooperatives (With the Trade Promotion Fair for collective and cooperative economic sectors in 2024).
• Activities about “Bac Lieu Southern amateur music”.
• Organizing spaces for displaying models, artifacts, and technical advances in salt production and processing.
• Organizing tours for visitors to visit tourist attractions and historical sites.
• Workshop "Orientation and solutions for developing Bac Lieu salt tourism products".
• The investment promotion conference in agricultural and rural areas.
• Preliminary conference on implementing Decree No. 40/2017/ND-CP dated April 5, 2017 of the Government on salt production and business management.
• Workshop “Applying science and technology on salt production, adapting to climate change”.
• Closing ceremony of the Vietnam Salt Industry Festival – Bac Lieu 2024.

Organizing the Salt Craft Festival for the first time

Mr Pham Van Thieu, Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province, said that the Vietnam Salt Industry Festival – Bac Lieu 2024 is a big event of the year for Bac Lieu province. While many festivals about rice, fruit, shrimp, crab,... have been held, no province has organized the Salt Festival. 

According to Mr Thieu, the Bac Lieu salt-making profession has been recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage, so it is necessary to preserve the value of the salt industry to raise its value, help salt farmers get better and richer from the salt industry.

“Besides supporting salt farmers, we need major action programs to propagate and invite domestic and foreign investors to come to Bac Lieu and invest in salt production. Now, many investors from Korea, Singapore, China,... come to Bac Lieu to survey building factories and invest in salt production”, Mr Thieu said.

Also according to Mr Thieu, Bac Lieu salt has had a long history from the French period to now for more than 100 years. The Bac Lieu salt industry has developed quite well, products have been exported to Europe and Asian countries.

The Chairman of the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province cited a Korean kimchi dish also made from Bac Lieu salt.

As a result, Bac Lieu province has asked the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development to organize the Salt Festival in order to make domestic and foreign investors pay more attention to salt. Therefore, a grain of salt really brings out its full value.

For more than 100 years, the salt-making profession has been closely associated with productive working life, bringing a stable source of income for people and folk knowledge accumulated and passed down through many generations.

In 2020, salt-making in Bac Lieu was recognized as a National Intangible Cultural Heritage. The salt fields in Bac Lieu attract many tourists.