Ca Mau
Vietnam's southernmost and largest shrimp-farming province with 427,000 hectares producing 900,000+ tonnes annually, pioneering organic mangrove-shrimp systems targeting $2.5B exports in 2025.
Ca Mau exists because the Mekong Delta's final expansion created Vietnam's southernmost landmass—the only province with three sides bordering the sea. This 253km-coastline territory has evolved into the country's largest shrimp farming operation: 427,000 hectares of ponds producing output that, following the 2024 administrative merger with Bac Lieu, exceeds 900,000 tonnes annually with export targets of $2.5 billion in 2025.
The formation story is recent—geologically and administratively. The U Minh mangrove forests that once covered this peninsula were cleared for rice during French colonization, then converted to shrimp ponds as global seafood demand exploded. Ca Mau's 2024 shrimp exports reached $1.265 billion; combined with the newly-merged Bac Lieu territory, the province now anchors Vietnam's position as a shrimp superpower competing with Ecuador and India.
What distinguishes Ca Mau is the shrimp-mangrove synthesis. The province has pioneered organic aquaculture under forest canopy—shrimp farming that requires maintaining 50% mangrove cover, creating carbon sinks while producing premium products. Ngoc Hien District manages 23,000 hectares of this model, with 1,860 hectares ASC-certified for export to demanding markets. The government targets 40,000 hectares of certified mangrove-shrimp systems by 2030.
The environmental economics work: farmers maintaining forest cover receive 20-30% price premiums for certified organic product. But the deeper logic is risk mitigation—mangroves buffer typhoons, filter water, and provide nursery habitat for wild-caught species. Ca Mau's aquaculture is not extractive monoculture but engineered ecosystem that produces multiple revenue streams while sequestering carbon.
By 2026, the merged Ca Mau-Bac Lieu entity aims to exceed $3 billion in seafood exports, serving 90+ countries. The constraint is climate change: sea level rise threatens the very low-lying delta, saltwater intrusion requires constant management, and extreme weather events test resilience. The province that grew from the sea may ultimately be reclaimed by it—unless its mangrove-shrimp model proves that production and protection can scale together.