March 30, 2006

US companies share shrimp cultivation methods with Vietnam

US companies shared cultivation methods with Vietnamese shrimp breeders at a workshop held recently in Ho Chi Minh City.

The workshop, organised by the Overseas Vietnamese Business Club and the US-Vietnam Trade Centre, introduced industrial cultivation, environmental protection and prevention of shrimp diseases to Vietnamese breeders.

Tran Van Nguyen, a biochemist and President of the Stanford Technology Network, shared his knowledge of US industrial shrimp breeding and expressed hope that it would be valuable to Vietnamese breeders.

He added that the tropical country is safer from floods and natural disasters than other regional countries, so it is able to have more shrimp crops every year, compared to temperate countries such as the US and northern Europe.

Vietnamese seafood exports were worth US$517.5 million for the first 3 months of the year, up 4.67 percent on-year, with March exports reaching US$185 million.

However, the Fisheries Ministries said that prices of exported shrimps may experience a drop in the next few months depending on the results of a US re-evaluation of current tariffs.

The seafood industry is also plagued by a shortage of raw materials, with many processing factories working at just 30 to 40 percent capacity. Some factories have resorted to temporary imports of shrimp from India and China for processing.