Vietnam sees potential for organic fertilizer business

A farmer waters vegetables in Hoa Vang district, Da Nang city (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s imports of organic fertiliser has surged in the past three years, reflecting increasing demand for the green product.

In 2017 alone, Vietnam imported about 220,000 tonnes of organic fertiliser, double the amount of 2016.

According to Pham ThiVuong, acting director of the Plant Protection Research Institute, when farmers use organic fertiliser instead of inorganic and chemical ones, the surrounding environment and water resources become cleaner and plants grow stronger and rely less on insecticides. They will harvest cleaner and safer products, which have higher retail and export value. 

Meanwhile, the production of organic fertiliser uses farming by-products and organic waste as its materials. Vietnam produces between 60 and 70 million tonnes of agricultural by-products annually.

The country currently needs about 11 million tonnes of fertiliser a year. As of December 2017, the number of registered organic fertiliser products was 713, accounting for 5 percent of the total, while the number of inorganic products made up 93.7 percent and biological products 1.3 percent.

The nation has 180 establishments licensed to make organic fertiliser but about 150 of them actively manufacture, with overall capacity reaching approximately 1.3 million tonnes a year. 

The country aims to annually manufacture 3 million tonnes of organic fertiliser by 2020.