Aquaculture in the first four months (09-05-2018)
According to the Fisheries Information Centre, country’s aquaculture production in April 2018 was estimated at over 395.3 thousand tons, an increase of 5.8 per cent year on year. This brought the figure in the first four months of this year to over 1 million tons, up 5.9 per cent compared to the same period last year. Generally, activities of aquaculture during the month were quite favorable.
Brackish water shrimp
Shrimp farming area in the first four months of this year was estimated at nearly 581.36 thousand hectares. Of which, black tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp farming areas were about 550.89 thousand hectares (up 1.8 per cent year on year) and nearly 30.47 thousand hectares, respectively. Shrimp yield production reached 120 thousand tons, an increase of 18 per cent compared to the same period last year. Of which, black tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp yields were about 57 thousand tons and 63 thousand tons, respectively.
Thanks to the favorable weather, brackish water shrimp continued to grow well. Prices of shrimp in April remained stable. In Khanh Hoa province, the price of black tiger shrimp size of 40 units per kilo ranged from VND 380 to 420 thousand per kilo; while white leg shrimp size 60 to 80 units per kilo ranged from VND 160 to 180 thousand per kilo.
However, in order to increase the economic efficiency of shrimp farming, government should have solutions to stabilize the market price; to raise quality of input products ,of which, fingerlings and feed are important keys to reduce the cost.
Tra fish
In the first four months of the year, country’s tra fish production reached 373.39 thousand tons, an increase of 7.6 per cent year on year. In April, the price of tra fish material increased sharply, fluctuating in the range of VND 30,000 to 32,000 per kilo depending on quality, size and payment method. This was recognized as a very high price in many years, helping farmers getting a great profit. The average profit of farmers was around VND 7.000 per kilo, which made farmers reinvest in expanding production.
In 2018, the export turnover of tra fish set target at US $ 2 to 2.2 billion. To gain that result, tra fish industry has to produce more than 1.3 million tons, so it needs 2.2 billion of fingerlings. Although the demand for fingerling is very high, but the current supply is still insufficient. It led the fingerling price pushed up. In An Giang province, fingerlings were sold at VND 120 thousand per kilo, up from VND 70 thousand per kilo at the same time of 2017. In some provinces, price of fingerlings pushed up from 30 percent to 40 percent over the same period.
Thuy Quynh