A worker pours clay in a mold in a ceramic workshop in Tan Phuoc Khanh village of Binh Duong province. (Photo: VNA) For craft villages and rural industries to develop, raw materialsplay an extremely important role.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development'sDepartment of Economic Cooperation and Rural Development, currently, ruralindustry has a turnover of 202 trillion VND (8.5 billion USD), down 11.6trillion VND compared to 2020.
The total number of production and business establishments is808,201, a decrease of 4,705 establishments compared to 2020, while per capitaincome is 5 million VND per year and exports of products and raw materialsreach about 3.3 billion USD.
The country has about 2008 recognised craft and traditionalvillages, an increase of 80 from 2020 with total turnover of 75.7 trillion VND,an increase of 17.3 trillion VND compared to 2020.
The number of production and business establishments in craft andtraditional villages is 270,760, an increase of 59,705 establishments comparedto 2020, creating jobs for about 1.58 million workers with per capita income of5-6 million VND per year.
Currently, the products of craft villages and rural industries aremade from many different sources of raw materials from farming, planting andnatural exploitation to industrial raw materials.
The use of many types of raw materials in one product has formedan increasingly close association between the raw material suppliers and theproduction facilities of craft villages.
However, the raw material areas have narrowed due to competitionwith other crops and are under pressure from the process of urbanisation andindustrialisation.
Le Duc Thinh, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperationand Rural Development, said that for raw materials of bamboo serving the bambooknitting villages, the average output is currently 500 to 600 million trees peryear, while consumption demand is from 900 to 1,000 million trees per year.
Therefore, many businesses and craft villages have to import rawmaterials from China, Laos and Cambodia, Thinh said.
For rattan raw materials, annual demand is about 80,000 tonneswith an output of about 3.5 tonnes per hectare, so an area of 23,000ha isneeded.
Rattan is mainly exploited from nature and has become very scarcedue to over-exploitation and lack of management.
The lack of concentrated and large-scale planting areas leads to alack of stability in the supply of raw material.
Countries with a lot of rattan material in the world, such asIndonesia and Laos, have banned the export of rattan raw material, soVietnamese enterprises have a serious shortage of raw material, he said.
Currently, there are 173 recognised embroidery and weavingvillages nationwide.
Materials for embroidery and weaving include silk, cotton, flax,lotus silk, and banana fiber.
It is difficult to expand raw material growing areas due tocompetition with other crops of higher economic value, which is a challenge forembroidery and weaving villages.
Processing technology has not yet reached high-grade silk, whilemany other materials have to be imported in large quantities, such as cotton(98 per cent) and embroidered fabrics.
The country has 37 ceramic villages. Raw materials for productionare mainly kaolin and clay.
Total demand for ceramic materials is more than 1.9 million tonnesper year. Hà Nội alone has demand of about 600,000 tonnes per year.
Currently, producers have to import a large quantity ofhigh-quality raw materials from mainland China and Taiwan at very high prices.
According to Thinh, although there is a good clay factory, thereis no good kaolin factory, so it is impossible to create good materials becausethese two materials always have to be mixed together to create raw materialsfor ceramic production.
On the other hand, raw materials are becoming more and more scarcedue to planning for housing construction in areas with raw materials.
At present, the reserve of raw material mines supplying ceramicproduction establishments in Binh Duong province is also decreasing rapidly.
Thinh said: “Currently, there are many shortcomings and problemsin the development of raw material areas for craft villages.”
“Specifically, localities do not have long-term development plansor programmes to develop concentrated and large-scale raw material areas toserve enterprises, craft villages and rural industries,” Thinh said.
“Many plant varieties are being degraded, such as bamboo andrattan, while raw material growing areas have not been proactive in seedlingand breeding sources such as bamboo, rattan and silkworm varieties. And thereare not many new high-yield and high-quality varieties,” he said.
There has not been much linkage in production in raw materialgrowing areas with the orientation of forming co-operatives, co-operativegroups and linking farmers with businesses to purchase products.
Semi-processing and processing factories, craft villages andbusinesses are often located far away from raw material areas, leading todifficulties in purchasing and selling raw materials.
The technology for semi-processing and processing of raw materialsis still backward, resulting in inconsistent products in terms of quality thatare less competitive, especially in export markets.
Linkage is the key
For craft villages to develop, the raw material area serving theproduction plays an extremely important role.
Because, if there are no good materials, it will not be possibleto create quality products and be proactive in production.
More importantly, the raw material areas for rural industries areplaces to retain workers and create sustainable livelihoods for people in ruralareas.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran ThanhNam said that it is necessary to synchronously implement solutions on planningmaterial areas, formation of chain links, investment and science and technologyapplication and innovation in production and breeding and seedling activities.
On the other hand, the weakness of businesses today is that theyhave not taken full advantage of their advantages when setting foot in alocality to form links and develop sustainably, said Nam.
“In order to develop raw material areas, craft villages and ruralindustries have no choice but to form linkage chains,” Nam said.
“Local authorities need to soon develop specific planning andpolicies to support raw material areas,” he added.
Le Ba Ngoc, General Secretary of the Vietnam Handicraft Exporters’Association (VIETCRAFT), said that it is necessary to develop raw materialareas based on the advantages of each locality and region with traceableorigins.
“It is necessary to harmoniously combine many scales and give priorityto the development of concentrated specialised farming areas in combinationwith household economic development models in order to maintain stable rawmaterial areas and generate income for households,” said Ngoc.
“In addition, research on improving varieties and plantingtechniques to create good quality raw materials suitable for handicraftproducts are needed,” he said.
“The diversification of forms of ownership of raw material areasshould be taken into consideration to create conditions for production andbusiness establishments, especially export business enterprises in craftvillages, to participate in the development of raw material areas in the formof public-private partnerships,” he added./.
VNA
