March 30, 2011

Vietnam's Ca Mau breeders face shrimp offspring shortage

Vietnam's southern province of Ca Mau, the country's biggest prawn producer, is plagued by shrimp offspring scarcity for farming in the midst of an increasing demand.

Nguyen Chi Van, who has a four-hectare prawn farm in Dam Doi District's Ta An Khuong Dong Commune, said he has made three unfruitful trips to the district market selling juveniles for the current breeding season. He could only buy 10,000 out of the 60,000 he needed.

Many traders said they have not been able to buy enough shrimp offspring to sell them to farmers.

With 260,000 hectares of shrimp farms, Ca Mau needs around 15 billion offspring a year, but its 800 rearing farms can only supply half of that quantity.

This year only 3.5 billion of offspring have been procured so far, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The shortage of shrimp offspring has increased their price by 30% on-year, the highest in the last three years, local farmers said.