December 28, 2011

Rising 252,000 tonnes from last year, Vietnam's Mekong Delta has produced 2.19 million tonnes of seafood in 2011, state media reported.

The local farmers produced 300,000 tonnes of black-tiger and white-leg shrimp, 1.2 million tonnes of pangasius and other aquatic species.

Most black-tiger shrimp, white-legged shrimp, pangasius fish, tilapia and oyster are cultivated for export while blue-legged prawn and red tilapia are cultivated for local consumption.

Most black-tiger shrimp and oyster in the delta are cultivated under the model of extensive farming, an agricultural system that uses small inputs of labour, fertilisers and capital.

White-legged shrimp and pangasius fish are cultivated under the intensive farming model, which has high inputs of capital, labour or heavy usage of technologies such as pesticides and chemical fertilisers.

This year, the delta increased its aquatic area to 762,000 hectares.

Meanwhile, farmers in An Giang and Dong Thap provinces are earning high profits from blue-legged prawn harvest thank to high prices, which hit VND240,000-270,000 (US$11.42-12.84) per kilogramme, rising by VND70,000-90,000 (US$3.33-4.28) per kilogramme compared to that last year.

Dong Thap has nearly 1,500 hectares of blue-legged prawn, which is farmed in paddy fields during the flooding season while farmers in An Giang province farmers breed blue-legged prawn in paddy fields.