This important event, based at Vo Nguyen Giap Square, is organised by Dong Thap People’s Committee, in tandem with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Fisheries, the Vietnam Pangasius Association, and the Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters.

Themed “Riding the high seas”, the event is expected to hail 300 delegates and about 50,000 visitors, many of who will also visit other distinct tourism attractions inside and outside Dong Thap on the occasion.

The organisers tailored a raft of intriguing agenda with a farm trip, press trip, and business trip to basa fish raising and processing sites; a basa fish banquet; a parade; dropping lanterns on the river, and more.

Part of the festival will be diverse exhibition spaces showing a wide assortment of basa fish products, local distinct One Product, One Commune items; a food competition; a seminar on agricultural extension; and a conference reviewing seafood sector development in 2022, among others.

Dong Thap province is aiming to hit around 2,450ha of basa farming by 2025

The Basa Fish Festival is being set as an annual event striving to build up the image of Hong Ngu city as the basa fish kingdom, from there alluring traders and visitors and paying tribute to basa fish occupation, one of the pivotal economic sectors in Dong Thap and the Mekong Delta in general.

The festival’s distinct agenda seeks to provide an efficient platform for business networking, as well as supply and demand connection to boost sales and seek potential business partners in the sector chain.

Pham Tan Dat, Deputy Party Secretary and Chairman of Hong Ngu People’s Committee, noted that for the first time in the Mekong Delta, Hong Ngu city earned the honour to host the festival and as this is an important event for the province. The whole city has been making strenuous efforts to ensure all set targets have been achieved with satisfactory results, Dat added.

Hong Ngu is deemed a young, dynamic city full of vitality in the province’s border trade area, with warm-hearted people.

Dong Thap as a whole is currently home to more than 2,300ha of basa fish raising area, with annual output surpassing 451,000 tonnes.

As one of five key sectors in Dong Thap, basa fish has been exported to 138 markets worldwide, including China, the US, ASEAN, the EU, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, and the UK.

Dong Thap has thus far enacted a basa fish development plan to 2025. Accordingly, by that time the province aims to accommodate 2,450ha of basa fish farming area in which 1,225ha reach Good Agriculture Practice standards, with output reaching 555,000 tonnes. It aims to generate more than $390 million in export value, making up 17.2 per cent of agro-forestry-fishery gross value and bringing in export turnover exceeding $980 million.