August 26, 2011

 

Vietnamese farmers oppose draft ban on whiteleg shrimp

 

 

Vietnam's Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) has added the whiteleg shrimp to a list of environmentally harmful non-native creatures, to the consternation of local farmers.

 

Under the draft decree, effective from August 15 if approved, those found rearing banned species would be fined from VND50-500 million (US$2,400-24,000) and forced to either re-export or destroy them, said Nguyen Thi Kim Anh, deputy head of the Legal Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

 

However, Vietnamese farmers oppose the action, saying that exports of whiteleg shrimp (L. vannamei) have brought in high revenues.

 

If whiteleg shrimp is proven harmless and of high economic value, the MARD should request the environment ministry to remove it from the banned list, Anh said.

 

The now-defunct Ministry of Fisheries had previously banned whiteleg shrimp farming, claiming that it could spread diseases to tiger shrimp. As such, 17 whiteleg shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang were fined VND3 million (US$143.97) and VND4 million (US$191.96) each in 2007.

 

However, the Research Institutes for Aquaculture No.2 and No.3 proved that the disease concerns were unfounded, and the agricultural authorities allowed locals to farm whiteleg shrimp after the decade-long dispute.

 

MARD wrote to MONRE last April requesting for whiteleg shrimp to be excluded from the  list of banned species, but was unsuccessful.

 

A member company of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said the on-and-off policy toward whiteleg shrimp farming was a glaring indication of policymaking flaws.

 

If the ban was reintroduced, farmers and firms would face huge economic losses, said the company.

 

MARD allows farmers to raise whiteleg shrimp, as tiger shrimp stocks have been hit by diseases. VASEP has estimated this year's shrimp export will reach US$1.8 billion to US$1.9 billion, with half of that figure coming from whiteleg shrimp.

 

Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of VASEP, said that smaller volumes of white-legged shrimp were generally exported compared to tiger shrimp, but the added value resulted in a higher export revenue.