May 28, 2007

Vietnam's Mekong Delta to increase tra, basa catfish areas

The region of Mekong Delta in Vietnam is set to enlarge its tra and basa catfish breeding area to 10,200 hectares with 1,900 fish cages by 2010.

According to Vietnam News Bridge, overall tra and basa catfish in the region will reach 860,000 tonnes within three years, valued at 12.112 trillion VND (US$757 million).

In the long term, Mekong Delta provinces intends to expand its farming area for tra and basa catfish to 16,600 hectares by 2020, with 3,900 fish cages, which will provide an output of 1.9 million tones and generate an income of 34.572 trillion VND (US$2.16 billion).

The region aims to develop 2,100 establishments producing 2.7 billion of fry by 2010 and 6.7 billion by 2020 to achieve these targets. This development project is estimated to cost 6.474 trillion VND (US$404.6 million) or 2.3 percent from the national budget.

In terms of processing capacity, provinces in Mekong Delta aims to have 68 factories with target annual production of 534,000 tonnes of products by 2010 and 130 factories with yearly output of over 1 million tonnes by 2020.

The region also aims to export 230,000 tonnes of tra and basa catfish fillet worth US$600 million by 2010 and 460,000 tonnes with a turnover of US$1.2 billion by 2020.

In 2006, tra and basa catfish exports in Mekong Delta reached US$500 million and expected to reach US$750,000 million this year.