Phu Tho Province - Economy

Economy

Phú Thọ is one of the poorest areas of Vietnam; the poorest households earn below $6 (USD) per person per month. As of 1997, the provincial economy was roughly evenly split at 33% of the workforce working in agriculture, industry and in services respectively. In the period during 1990-1995, the annual increase rate in income 72%. The city of Việt Trì (population 181,123 (2009)) is the headquarters of many companies and groups active in the province and contains many of the industrial firms and service industries.

In agriculture, tea is important to the economy and is the main industrial crop. In the mid-19th century, the established the tea industry in Vietnam, particularly in Phú Thọ province and they had established three research stations to promote tea plantations 33,000 acres (13,000 ha) which were cultivated in Vietnam. Until 1945, during World War II, the tea gardens were deserted, and post-WWII development of the tea industry restarted with assistance from other tea producing countries. The Vietnamese established a Tea Development Incorporation. The total planted area was estimated at 8,400 hectares (21,000 acres) in 2001, (7,200 hectares (18,000 acres) in 1997), around 9% of the cultivated area of the province. The province has an annual production of 31,000 tons of fresh tea (7,000 tonnes of dry tea), although between 1998 and 2001 there was an annual rise of 8% due to the increase in area and yield. As of 2002, the annual production was estimated at 100,000 tons of dry tea, tea consumption stood at 20,000 tonnes a year and 80,000 tons were exported. Over 15,000 families in the province are involved in tea production.

The French agency Agence Française de Développement (AFD) are active in the province and have financed a tea production development program for villages in eight of the province’s districts and aims contribute to the economic development of rural populations and improve their living conditions. Under AFD investment (8.5 million euro grant from France), some 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of new plantations will be created and existing plantations will be improved in yields and efficiency. 3000 families were expected to benefit from this project. The project has also facilitated improvements in infrastructure in some 115 km of existing routes.

The Vietnamese government had a development strategy for the 2001-10, aiming to improve the output and income of the provincial economy, aiming to double its GDP, increase exports fourfold and strengthen the socialist market economy. Some of the relevant economics statistics related the agriculture and industries sectors are given below. As against the national figure of 273 Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery cooperatives there are 100 cooperatives, of which 96 are agricultural cooperatives and three are fisheries cooperatives. The number of cooperatives is 100 as against 7592 cooperatives in the country. There are only 192 farms (last reported in 2002) as against the national number of 120,699.

The output value of agriculture produce at constant 1994 prices in the province was 1686.6 billion đồngs against the national value of 156,681.9 billion dongs. The province produced 280,300 tonnes of cereals as against the national production of 421.3 million tonnes.

The per capita production of cereals in the district was 308.7 kilograms (681 lb) as against the national figure of 501.8 kilograms (1,106 lb) in 2007. The province is also known for its grapefruit, palm oil, rice and cassava; freshwater fish are caught in the Red River. In 2007, the industrial output of the province was 11705.1 billion dongs against the national output of 1.47 million billion dongs.