May 23, 2011

 

Vietnamese shrimp and tra fish trade causes stock shortages

 

 

As the shrimp and tra fish prices rise both locally and globally, Vietnamese farmers and traders in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are paying more for breeder shrimp and fish.

 

Most of the shrimp and fish breeding centres in the Delta have sold all of their breeder fish and shrimp, leading to a shortage and an increase in price.

 

The Delta is entering the main shrimp breeding season. Only 25% of the entire shrimp-breeding areas in provinces like Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh are currently productive due to the shortage of breeder shrimp.

 

The Delta has 1,200 shrimp breeding centres which meet about 50% of the Delta's shrimp fry demand. The remaining 50% is generally bought from other south-eastern and central provinces. However, the quality of shrimp fry bought from these localities is not strictly quarantined.

 

The price of breeder shrimp is now about VND80 (US$0.004) a head, up two to three times against the same period last year.

 

Chau Cong Bang, deputy director of the Ca Mau Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Ca Mau was the country's largest shrimp breeding province with an area of 260,000 hectares and needed about 13 billion of shrimp fry a year.

 

But the province's shrimp breeding centres can only supply about five to six billion shrimp fry and the remaining must be bought from other provinces, even from other countries. "The weather is now unfavourable so it is difficult for shrimp breeding centres to produce shrimp fry, making the scarcity of fry even more severe," Chau said.

 

Nguyen Van Khoi, deputy director of the Soc Trang Province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said farmers were buying breeders from unknown sources that have not quarantined their fish and shrimp. Only 15% of shrimp fry bought from other provinces were disease-free, Khoi said, adding that this was causing outbreaks of disease.

 

Tra fish fry of 1.4 cm long now cost VND1,200 (US$0.06) a head compared to VND800-900 (US$0.038-0.04) in April.

 

The Delta has 175 tra fish breeding centres, which produced 19% more breeder fish compared to 2009, said the Fisheries General Department. But that higher output still cannot meet the current demand of farmers who raise tra fish.

 

To solve the quality issue of tra fish and shrimp fry, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) will provide 100,000 breeder tra fish for the Delta to replace current breeders at the end of the year, said MARD deputy minister Vu Van Tam. These breeder tra fish will help raise the quality of commercial tra fish on the market.

 

The ministry, which will soon issue the criteria for shrimp farming areas, plans to grant codes to 50% of shrimp farming areas to track down shrimp origin. The ministry will also strengthen the transfer of shrimp reproduction techniques for localities so they can ensure an adequate supply of shrimp fry.