Can Tho (VNA) – The Mekong Delta city of Can Tho wants to enhancecooperation with SunRice, Australia’s largest rice production and distributiongroup, so as to improve production efficiency and income for local farmers,Chairman of the city People’s Committee Duong Tan Hien said on April 3.

In his working session with SunRice Group’s leaders, Hien highlighted that CanTho city, the hub of the Mekong Delta region, has a total rice cultivation ofsome 75,000 hectares which yield more than 1.3 million tonnes a year.

Last year, the city shipped 976,000 tonnes of rice abroad, up 23% year-on-year,and rice export in the first quarter of this year continued to enjoy robustgrowth, according to Hien.

The city will focus on developing high-tech agriculture to better product quality,and branching out more large-scale rice field to increase productivity, hesaid, adding it is engaging in a project to grow one million hectares of high-qualityrice with low carbon footprints in the Mekong Delta until 2030.

However, Hien pointed out that ineffectiverice production has made local livelihoods in the country’s rice granary challenging,elaborating small-scale and unplanned farming has led to “bumper crops, fallingprices” or vice versa.

Can Tho wishes to cooperate with SunRice, boasting considerable experience inrice plantation, management and processing, to improve local production value,he said, stressing the local administration will create favourable conditionsfor the group to study and develop a plant in the city for further cooperation.

Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of SunRice Group Paul JosephSerra said the group, which has been present in more than 50 countries acrossthe globe, wants to join in sustainable rice cultivation project freshly launchedby the Vietnamese Government.

He expressed his hope to build a plant in Can Tho city, a move to helpVietnamese rice reach out the high-end markets such as the US and Europe.

The one-million-hectare high-quality andlow-carbon rice cultivation project will be deployed in the Mekong Deltalocalities of An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Long An, Soc Trang, Can Tho, BacLieu, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang, Ca Mau, Tien Giang and Vinh Long. It is part of aneffort to restructure the region's production system and value chain with afocus on sustainable farming practices, higher product value, greater businessand production efficiency, as well as improved livelihoods of rice farmers, inaccordance with Vietnam’s commitment to environmental protection, climatechange response and greenhouse gas emission reduction./.