Ca Mau boosts marine aquaculture industry (25-09-2018)
Ca Mau plans to focus on key marine species such as grouper, yellowfin pomfret, seabream, barramundi, cobia... Along with the priority of indigenous fish species (grouper, cobia) of high competitiveness in the international market, the province also develops farming of algae, seaweeds, molluscs, crustaceans and other species.
Ca Mau the only province in the country with three sides adjoining the sea, with 254 km of coastline, is one of the four key fishing grounds of the country. This is a very favorable natural condition to develop marine aquaculture, but this advantage has not been properly promoted.
Based on the above natural condition, marine aquaculture along the estuaries of the province was formed nearly 10 years ago. One of the most prominent models of marine aquaculture is the in-cage cobia farming of some people in Hon Chuoi Island.
Over the years, this model has partly confirmed economic efficiency, creating jobs and stable income for fishermen on the island. According to statistics, in 2017, on the island, 30 households invested in farming cobia with about 250 cages, the total volume of fish is about 15-20 tons.
However, it is only spontaneous activities with low technical level of farming, limited investment in building cages, leading to risks when storms occur. The lack of fingerlings is still common, the disease on cages over time often occur...
These shortcomings stem from the fact that there is no stable output market and no valuable products have been created to meet the demand of domestic and export markets. Investment in marine aquaculture is high but marine aquaculture faces a lot of risks of natural disasters, environmental and epidemics.
Starting from these shortcomings, as well as the need to develop marine aquaculture in the coming time, Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee has instructed Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to develop a plan for marine aquaculture development in Ca Mau in 2018-2020 and orientation to 2030.
Accordingly, the objective of the plan is to develop marine aquaculture into an industrial scale commodity industry, promote the application of science and technology, create products to ensure food safety and hygiene, high quality and good brand. At the same time, the linkage of the value chain of goods is promoted for domestic consumption and export, in association with the protection of the marine ecological environment and ensuring the security and defense in the sea and islands.
Nhu Nguyet