June 20, 2012

 

Vietnam requests foreign assistance on strange shrimp disease

 

 

In order to find out the causes of shrimp disease which is occurring in aquatic farms nationwide, Vietnam will be assisted by experts from UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the US and Japan, said the General Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

 

The US Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will send an inspection team to help Vietnam find the best way to cope with the disease while FAO pledges a support package worth US$500,000 for a project to prevent the disease from spreading further.

 

The disease, caused by unknown factors, has affected 35,000 hectares of shrimp in provinces, including those in the Mekong Delta region and the central coastal region, the department said.

 

The losses caused by the disease are forecast to hit VND5 trillion (US$238 million), the department said, adding that Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Kien Giang, Bac Lieu, and Long An are among provinces hardest it by the disease.

 

Shrimp is one of major export products for Vietnam. The country targets to earn US$2.5 billion from shrimp exports in 2012, up from US$2.39 billion in 2011. The US and Japan are the two importers of Vietnamese shrimps.

 

With shrimp breeders in the Mekong Delta have been suffering severe losses over the years with diseases ravaging large shrimp farming areas, yet they seem least interested in insuring their shrimp crops as absurd insurance policies along with lengthy, complicated and unnecessary procedures have only put them off.

 

According to a Government pilot project for agriculture insurance, poor households will receive back as much as 80-100% of the insurance amount. However, such a high return amount still fails to lure any of the shrimp breeders.

 

Nguyen Trung Thanh, Chairman of the Ngoc To Commune People's Committee in My Xuyen District of Soc Trang Province, said that the Commune has 420 poor households who breed shrimps but none of them wish to buy insurance cover. According to Thanh, farmers feel intimidated from so much paperwork and red-tape.

 

For instance, the Bao Viet Insurance Company requires breeders to write down the breeding process and report to the Commune's People's Committee on the health condition of their shrimps every week.

 

In case shrimps fall sick, breeders must report to the Commune authorities within 24 hours. The Commune's People's Committee then has to inform the insurance company within 48 hours. Related sides will come to take samples for testing. This process takes at least a few weeks.

 

Another problem is that the insurance premium amount for tiger shrimps and white leg shrimps is widely different. The rate on white leg shrimps is much higher than that on tiger shrimps.

 

Le Thanh Binh, an insurance agent and also an official of Ngoc To Commune, said that if a shrimp farm reports dead shrimps due to disease, its owner will not be compensated unless his Commune authorities proclaim an epidemic.

 

This regulation is absurd, as an epidemic means that the entire shrimp crop in the region would be more or less destroyed, said Binh.