Attending the conference were representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, People’s Committee of Phu Yen Province. Department of Economic Security (Ministry of Public Security), Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in some provinces, key coastal cities producing and consuming seed shrimp, Department of Animal Health, Research Institutes, experts, Shrimp Breeding Association and media reporters coming to report on the Conference. Deputy Minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Phung Duc Tien hosted the conference.
According to the report of the Directorate of Fisheries, in 2018, the total area of brackish water shrimp farming in the whole country is about 720 thousand hectares, increasing by 0.3% in comparison with the same period in 2017, of which, the area of tiger shrimp farming is 615 thousand hectares and the area of while leg shrimp farming is 105 thousand hectares. The harvest output is about 745 thousand tons (increasing by 9% compared to 2017), the export turnover reaches nearly 3.59 billion USD. With the current area of brackish shrimp farming, the demand for shrimp seed is about 130 billion (about 100 billion white leg shrimps and 30 billion black tiger shrimp), the number of broodstock needed to produce shrimp seed is 250,000 (including 200,000 white leg shrimp and 50,000 black tiger shrimp).
In 2018, the whole country had 2,457 brackish shrimp seed production establishments, of which there are 1,855 black tiger shrimp seed production establishments and 602 white leg shrimp seed production establishments, production output of seed shrimp is 120 billion (increasing by 10.4% compared to 2017), of which tiger shrimp has 37.5 billion and white leg shrimp has 82.5 billion. The key shrimp seed production area of our country are provinces in the South Central region including Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, every year the facilities in this area provide about 56% of brackish shrimp seeds for the country’s demand for farming, the rest is produced in province of Mekong Delta like Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and the northern provinces such as Nghe An and Ha Tinh.
In the past year, the shrimp production industry has developed strongly, especially in the central and Mekong Delta provinces. Shrimp seed production plays a key role in determining success or failure in the shrimp production chain. However, there are currently still many shortcomings in the shrimp industry; for example, research and selection are still slow and have not been associated with production practices, chosen black tiger shrimp has not created good seeds and there is no disease resistance. Production and business activities with variety forms of trading are difficult to control, many violating activities occur such as fake labels, no quality announcement, use of poor quality broodstock, no control ... Especially the management of a focal point but not in the chain management has no good coordination, so its effectiveness and the efficiency are not high.
In order to control the quality of shrimp seed, the Directorate of Fisheries has cooperated with functional agencies and specialized inspectors to organize inspections and checks to detect, prevent and promptly handle violating cases in the production and consumption of shrimp seed. In particular, the Directorate of Fisheries in coordination with the Department of Economic Security - Ministry of Public Security has conducted 9 unscheduled inspections in shrimp production and trading establishments showing signs of violation, has sanctioned administrative violations more than 540 million VND, has destroyed 4,400 broodstock, has forced to re-test more than 50 billion seed shrimps. The Directorate of Fisheries organizes the pilot signing of the Regulation on coordination and management of brackish shrimp among 11 localities including Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Long An, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Kien Giang and Ca Mau. In addition, the Directorate of Fisheries has authorized local authorities to check the quality of imported shrimp parents. Localities have been fiercely involved in adjusting violations in seed shrimp production.
At the Conference, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh, Chairman of Binh Thuan Shrimp Association, said that: The management of shrimp seed still has many shortcomings, for example, broodstock caught in the ponds by some establishments has been raised with imported broodstock for mass production or broodstock extends production time. The current situation is that large establishments, after producing seeds, sell broodstock to small establishments to continue seed production. Because of the poor quality of seed, there is one facility but many types of packaging, different designs, and they sell at any price that buyers pay for.
Some current limitations in producing aquatic seeds in our country are the limited results of research and selection of broodstock in the country. Broodstocks depend on imported and exploited sources from the nature, partly supplied by the domestic market, which leads to dependent shrimp production. In the peak season of stocking, there are still a large number of shrimp seeds shipped from Southern Central provinces without origin and quarantine in key provinces for commercial shrimp farming. Beside the localities that have signed the coordination regulations, the information sharing among other localities has not been good. The provincial fisheries management agency is delegated to generally manage aquaculture but does not know how much quarantine seed is, where it comes from, which brings great difficulties to the management process. ...
According to the plan of 2019, the Directorate of Fisheries aims to raise 725 thousand hectares of brackish water shrimp area (of which there are 620 thousand hectares of tiger shrimp and 105 thousand hectares of white leg shrimp), with an output of 760 thousand tons (including 280 thousand tons black tiger shrimp and 480 thousand tons of white leg shrimp), demand for 130 billion shrimp seeds. In order to successfully implement this plan, the branches and localities should organize propaganda and dissemination for aquatic seed production and business establishments to fully comply with the provisions of the Fisheries Law and guiding documents, to guide, inspect, evaluate and recognize establishments eligible for aquatic seed production and culture, to organize a peak inspection phase in key provinces, to strictly handle violations of production conditions and quality of shrimp seed.
Addressing the conference, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said that: to strengthen the management of shrimp seed, overcome the shortcomings in the coming time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to strengthen the control and quarantine of shrimp seed. According to Deputy Minister, the legal action has been relatively complete, the localities need to strictly implement the regulations and strengthen the coordination of quality control of brackish shrimp seed. At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will strengthen the sudden inspection of shrimp production establishments at hot spots all over the country. The Directorate of Fisheries should coordinate closely with localities to manage the quality of shrimp seed, information on the origin, quality and related issues between the shrimp production localities and commercial shrimp farming areas. Localities continue to inform the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of issues arising in the management process, especially in the implementation of new regulations to promptly coordinate and manage. Production facilities continue to reorganize production towards cooperation, link small shrimp production establishments to create large-scale production areas, create clues to link with the shrimp consumption area to control seed quality.
TRAN HONG DUONG