Pressure from lack of capital
These days, the fish cage farming area of Kim Lai Fish Cage Farming Cooperative (Hai Duong ward) no longer features the densely packed hundreds of cages as before. After Typhoon Yagi in 2024, nearly half of the cages sank, resulting in significant losses of fingerlings, floating rafts, and production materials. From 196 cages, the cooperative now maintains only over 100.
According to Dao Van Phuc, Director of the Kim Lai Cage Fish Farming Cooperative, at its peak, with 20 member households, the cooperative maintained nearly 200 cages raising various types of fish, supplying approximately 200 tons of commercial fish per year to the Hai Phong and Hanoi markets. However, after natural disasters and continuously rising feed prices, many member households no longer have sufficient resources for reinvestment. Many households are concerned about high interest rates on commercial bank loans, the long farming cycle, risks, and the inability to recover capital quickly.
Many members of the Thu Nam Toan Tri Hai Cooperative (Hop Tien commune) are facing similar pressure. Ms. Vu Thi Nu's family (a cooperative member) currently maintains over 50 cages for raising crispy carp and other specialty fish. The cost of fish feed alone is approximately 30 million VND per day. However, with the price of crispy carp fluctuating between 80,000 and 120,000 VND per kilogram, and a breeding cycle lasting nearly a year, profits are significantly reduced.
In Nam Trieu ward, Mr. Dinh Van Cuc, a member of the Lap Le Agricultural Production, Business and Service Cooperative, has been involved in aquaculture for over 30 years and currently maintains a farming area of approximately 4.5 hectares according to VietGAP standards.
Each season, his family raises about 10,000 black carp and 40,000 catfish, with an average harvest of about 50 tons per pond. Although the market is relatively stable, input costs are increasing. For feed alone, the family uses more than 10 bags per day, costing around 450,000 VND per bag. Not to mention the electricity costs for operating the aeration system and water pumps, which amount to nearly 50 million VND per month. Without a stable source of capital, it would be very difficult to maintain production in the long term.
The Lap Le Agricultural Production, Business and Service Cooperative currently has approximately 800 members, of which more than 100 are involved in aquaculture with a total area of about 224 hectares. To support its members, the cooperative proactively implements various forms of assistance such as unsecured loans and deferred payment for feed to help farmers maintain production. However, members have a great need for long-term capital, while access to preferential loans remains limited.
Maximizing the effectiveness of capital resources.
Currently, many cooperatives are demonstrating clear effectiveness when they have access to appropriate support capital. At Phuc Le Business and Service Cooperative, the unit is continuously expanding its production and business activities in the fields of construction materials production and agricultural services; maintaining effective internal lending operations; and supporting members in investing in production development.
Loan approvals are processed rigorously and transparently, based on each member's production plan, ability to mobilize resources, and investment efficiency. The use of funds is monitored and supervised to ensure that the capital is used for its intended purpose.
From 2016 to the present, the cooperative has received loans three times from the Cooperative Development Support Fund of the City's Cooperative Union, with the largest loan reaching 1.3 billion VND. This preferential capital has helped the unit expand its scale, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen the trust of its members.
However, to access capital, cooperatives are having to use personal assets as collateral. This is also the reality for many cooperatives when common assets are not sufficient to secure credit.
To overcome difficulties, the City's Cooperative Development Support Fund has implemented many solutions to support cooperatives. According to Vu Duc Cuong, Head of the Credit Department of the Cooperative Development Support Fund: With a city budget allocation of 20 billion VND, the Fund provides secured loans with a preferential interest rate of 0.6% per month, equivalent to 7.2% per year, creating conditions for cooperatives to access low-cost capital to expand production and business.
During the period 2021-2025, the Fund directly supported 14 cooperatives, cooperative groups, and cooperative unions with loans; on average, 19-22 projects were disbursed annually, with loan amounts ranging from 100 million VND to 1.5 billion VND per project. A total of 107 loan disbursements were made, focusing on various sectors.
In addition to providing direct loans, the Fund proactively reviews the difficulties of each unit to consider repayment terms, extending principal and interest when necessary; acting as a bridge and guiding cooperatives to access more capital channels. To date, the Vietnam Cooperative Development Support Fund has supported 3 units with a total capital of over 30 billion VND.
Recently, the City Cooperative Union also submitted to the City People's Committee a proposal to establish the Hai Phong City Cooperative Development Support Fund, based on the merger of two funds from Hai Phong and Hai Duong, with a total projected charter capital of 40 billion VND.
If approved, this would be a crucial resource, creating a stable, transparent, and long-term flow of credit for the city's collective economic sector.
In addition, cooperatives themselves must proactively innovate, improve management capacity, develop feasible production plans, develop products along the value chain, and apply appropriate technology and digital transformation.
As the "bottleneck" of capital is gradually removed, along with planning policies, science and technology, and market linkages, the collective economic sector will have more impetus to develop more strongly, affirming its important role in the socio-economic development of the city.
THANH VANSource: https://baohaiphong.vn/khoi-thong-dong-von-cho-hop-tac-xa-543429.html
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