Diem Dien Town: Developing marine economy

Tan Son fishing port is bustling with buyers and sellers.

In early April, at Tan Son fishing port, many boats are preparing fuel and food for the trip. Having just arrived at the port after a sea trip, the ship owner Dinh Xuan Hung and the crew said that his boat will go on this trip for 3 days. Since the beginning of the year, the boat has made more than 10 trips, each trip lasting 2-3 days depending on the weather and fishing grounds. With more than 20 years of experience at sea, and guaranteed fishing gear, there are trips where we encounter fish streams and harvest more than 20 tons of seafood. Mr. Hung confided: The pair of 420CV boats are the legacy of nearly 30 years of savings of two generations of seafarers. From the 30CV boat given to me by my parents, I have gradually upgraded it to a 90CV boat. By 2015, realizing that the fishing grounds were getting narrower and narrower, and that if I wanted to do big business with high efficiency, I had to build big ships, so I borrowed money from banks, relatives, and friends to build a pair of 420CV ships. Offshore fishing has helped my family earn a good income.

Mr. Hoang Dinh Kha, head of residential group No. 9, Diem Dien town, said: The residential group has 525 households, all of whom rely on the sea to have "food and savings", building spacious houses like today. Young and strong men board ships to sail out to sea, directly catching fish and shrimp; women take care of logistics or process seafood after catching. Many people get rich from the sea, boldly investing billions of dong to build large capacity ships, exploiting for long periods at sea such as Mr. Nguyen Van Lang, Nguyen Van Hung... many offshore trips earn more than a hundred million dong. The residential group has only 12 poor and near-poor households, these are single elderly households, disabled households, not strong enough to work, the rest are all average and well-off households or higher, with an average income of more than 80 million dong/person/year.

To encourage fishermen to exploit the potential and advantages of the coastal area, the Party Committee and the government of Diem Dien town always encourage and support fishermen. Since then, fishermen have boldly invested in purchasing fishing gear, actively going offshore. Thanks to that, the seafood exploitation output of fishermen has increased steadily over the years. Mr. Pham Van Quang, Vice Chairman of Diem Dien town People's Committee, said: Currently, there are more than 130 fishing vessels in the area maintaining a steady production pace in both offshore, inshore and nearshore areas. In 2024, despite many difficulties, the value of seafood exploitation reached 160 billion VND; in 2025, we strive to reach nearly 200 billion VND. To promote the potential and advantages of the sea, we have focused on leading, directing and encouraging fishermen to take care of production in conjunction with protecting fishing grounds and combating illegal fishing.

Along with exploitation, the seafood processing sector in Diem Dien town has also developed quite well. Currently, there are more than 45 households and businesses processing seafood with main products such as fish sauce, instant jellyfish, fish cakes, shrimp cakes, squid cakes, dried mussels, dried fish... Ms. Vu Thi Thanh, residential group 8 - a person with many years of experience in the fish sauce production industry in the locality said: The fish sauce and shrimp paste production industry has a long history of formation and development in the locality. To have products that ensure nutrition and food hygiene and safety, it is necessary to ensure right from the stage of selecting raw materials. The main raw materials for producing fish sauce are mackerel, anchovies, tuna, and scad. Each type of fish used to make fish sauce has its own flavor, on average 1 ton of fish produces more than 200 liters of fish sauce. The family's traditional fish sauce is characterized by high saltiness, no additives or chemicals are used, so it ensures food hygiene and safety, always reaching 15 - 25% protein content. The family's fish sauce production facility creates jobs for 5 local workers with an income of 6 - 8 million VND/person/month. In addition to producing fish sauce, I purchase seafood such as fresh shrimp, fresh squid, mackerel, jellyfish, white pomfret, grouper... to process and sell frozen.

Mr. Nguyen Huy Phong, Secretary of the Party Committee of Diem Dien town, said: Developing the marine economy has always been of interest to the locality. Because in addition to attracting and creating jobs for thousands of local workers, with an income of 6 - 12 million VND/person/month, it also contributes to the development of household economy. Many households working in seafood processing and trading and households participating in exploitation have an annual income of hundreds of millions of VND, some even earn billions. In particular, due to the increasing demand for transportation by sea, taking advantage of being a coastal locality, Diem Dien town has enterprises such as Xuan Truong Company Limited, Cong Vinh Company Limited... developing a fleet of sea transport vessels with a reasonable structure, applying modern technology, improving service quality to meet the needs of the domestic and international transportation market. In the coming time, the locality will continue to promote propaganda and mobilize fishermen to go offshore for exploitation; implement solutions to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; create conditions for seafood processing households to access preferential loans to invest in expanding production and business; actively apply science and technology to improve product quality, expand product consumption markets. Diem Dien town has been investing in building a system of technical infrastructure and social infrastructure; many large projects have been implemented such as Lien Ha Thai industrial park, economic zone axis road, resettlement area project ODT 14A, planned road project No. 2 and No. 5 of the district, renovation and upgrading project of DH.94 road... The locality has all the factors for the development of the marine economy, building Diem Dien town into a civilized and modern coastal urban area worthy of the position in Thai Binh Economic Zone.