The Mekong River Delta is Vietnam’s aquaculture heartland, yet its cooperatives – a business entity owned and governed by farmers - have long struggled with fragmented production, weak governance, and limited access to finance.
Beeld: EKN Hanoi
Shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta
Where the project begins
To address these challenges, the “Making Aquaculture Cooperatives Inclusive and Bankable” project (MACIB) was launched by Stichting Agriterra in March 2024 under the Vietnam–Netherlands Combi-Track Initiative funded by Dutch government and endorsed by the Dutch Embassy in Vietnam.
Beeld: MACIB
Policy dialogue on developing sustainable aquaculture cooperatives in June 2025
Over the last two years, MACIB worked with 6 shrimp cooperatives, covering 196 household members, representing more than 400 individual farmers in the Mekong River Delta. The project aims to transform them into professional, climate-resilient, and financially viable organizations, ensuring that farmer members could benefit directly from stronger governance, better services, and improved market access.
Beeld: MACIB
Women in a cooperative
From the outset, MACIB emphasized strengthening the role of cooperatives as service providers for their members. Structured business plans, governance training, and leadership programs for youth and women enabled cooperatives to deliver tangible benefits such as enhanced management skills, financial literacy, technical guidance, and stronger market linkages. As a result, between 2024-2025, membership grew by nearly 10%, while women’s participation in cooperative management rose to at least 5%. Youth involvement also reached 5%, marking a significant step toward greater inclusiveness.
This professionalization helped transform the six cooperatives from fragmented farmer groups into more credible actors in the aquaculture supply chain. They became capable of negotiating contracts with four big shrimp buyers, and supporting members in adopting new sustainable practices focusing on piloting new shrimp seeds, adopting high quality feed, using probiotics, etc. By focusing on member benefits, MACIB ensured that cooperative growth translated into tangible improvements in productivity, income, and resilience.
Beeld: © EKN Hanoi
Inside a shrimp processing facility
Building stronger partnerships and market connections
A cornerstone of the project was the promotion of Public–Private–Producer partnerships (4Ps), linking shrimp cooperatives with Dutch enterprises and local industry leaders, particularly, partnerships with Dutch companies such as Skretting, Tiptop Aquaculture, and Tepbac provided access to high-quality inputs (shrimp feed, and seed), advanced technologies. These collaborations were formalized through 8 official Memoranda of Understanding, which strengthened cooperative credibility and demonstrated the value of PPP models in bridging smallholder farmers with global enterprises.
In addition, five digital geography maps were built to support cooperatives in spatial planning, resource management, and climate risk assessment. These maps enabled cooperative to visualize production zones, track environmental changes, and make data-driven decisions about water use, disease prevention. They also serve as a basis for future market linkage and traceability, allowing cooperatives to document production origins, certify sustainable practices, and connect more effectively with buyers who demand reliable, verifiable sourcing information.
Making aquaculture more climate-smart
Climate change remains a pressing threat to aquaculture in the Mekong Delta, with saline intrusion, disease outbreaks, and extreme weather undermining productivity. MACIB responded by promoting climate-smart shrimp farming practices.
Beeld: MACIB
A MACIB minilab for disease prediction and testing services in the Mekong Delta
Two minilabs were provided to intensive farming cooperatives. These not only helped them predict potential diseases as early as possible but also enabled them to establish new testing services to assist their farmer members. At the same time, two demonstration plots showcasing advanced water treatment and management techniques were established within cooperatives operating rice-shrimp farming models.
Mangrove-shrimp cooperatives were also directly connected with trusted suppliers to pilot new seeds and probiotics, helping farmers reduce input costs, secure more climate-resilient stocks, and ultimately improve overall farm productivity. Despite challenges in mobilizing external finance, as the high risks associated with shrimp farming make financial institutions hesitant to provide non-collateralized loans, MACIB still met or exceeded nearly two thirds of its targets. Its impacts were wide ranging: economically, it improved efficiency; environmentally, it advanced sustainable practices; socially, it strengthened safety compliance and community cohesion; and institutionally, it modernized governance.
Sustainability was further supported through networks linking cooperatives with value chain actors, authorities, and experts, ensuring progress beyond the project’s end.
Lessons for the future
The MACIB project offers important lessons for the future of aquaculture development. Strengthening cooperatives requires a careful balance between institutional trainings and specialized technical knowledge. Inclusiveness is advanced when women and youth are integrated into practical initiatives that build real skills and leadership. Partnerships with private enterprises create pathways for scaling innovation and expanding market access.
By empowering members, fostering 4Ps, promoting climate-smart shrimp farming, nurturing youth leadership, and introducing digital tools such as geography maps for future market linkage and traceability, MACIB has laid the foundation for a stronger, more inclusive, and resilient aquaculture sector in the Mekong Delta.
Beeld: MACIB
What comes next will depend on how cooperatives, enterprises, and communities continue to build on this momentum – turning stronger organizations, better partnerships and climate-smart practices into lasting benefits for farmers and the wider aquaculture sector.
Contact information
If you have any questions for the Agriculture Department, please send an email to HAN-LVVN@minbuza.nl. For the latest updates, news funding opportunities and more, follow us on LinkedIn Netherlands Agricultural Network in Vietnam.