January 6, 2008

Many shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta in south-western Vietnam, are selling their land, unable to cope with the mounting debt caused by consecutive poor harvests.

Many shrimp farmers in Bac Lieu and other Mekong Delta provinces said they are waiting for support from authorities and exporters, but downstream situation is not much better as businesses in the seafood sector are facing their own difficulties.

Huynh Van Gan of Bac Lieu province in southern Vietnam said tiger prawn used to bring huge profits to farmers, helping many to escape poverty with just one successful harvest. 

With 1.7 hectares of shrimp ponds after five consecutive harvest failures, Gan said his debtalready totalled VND300 million including VND58 million in bank loans, VND150 million owed to feed suppliers and VND70 million owed to loan sharks.

Vinh Hau A Commune People's Committee chairman Tran Van Thong said local shrimp farmers could not achieve high output and suffered huge losses having to borrow a lot of money from banks.

Thong said total outstanding loans of shrimp farmers in the commune have reached VND60 billion, 77 percent of which are non-performing.

Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) chairman Tran Thien Hai said many companies had to cut production last month due to falling demands from Vietnam’s major shrimp export markets such as the US and Japan.

Vietnam's seafood exports are expected to fall 15 to 20 percent in value this year, with the shrimp and catfish being the hardest hit.

US$1 = VND17,477 (Jan 6)