Making a Fortune from Aquaculture

Fishermen in An Giang province are exploiting alluvial grounds and land strips along the Tien and Hau rivers to dig up fish culturing ponds which produce high quality commercial fishes. In 2008, fish output in An Giang province reached 315,000 tonnes, the largest in the country. In 2009, despite unfavourable conditions, the province still bagged US$240 million from fish exports in the first 10 months, leading the Mekong Delta region.

Promoting its aquaculture advantage, since May 2009, the An Giang Aquatic Breeding Centre signed a cooperation programme with Kandal province of Cambodia to diversify its freshwater fish reproduction and high-quality fish breeding process (2009 - 2011), exploit rich freshwater fish sources on the Mekong River and save endangering fish species. Cambodia has a rich parent fish sources; thus, the country has provided 10,000 parent tra (pangasius) catfishes to replace cultured schools, avoiding inbreeding and 100 pairs of parent wallago attu to produce highly valued pangasius krempfi, which is reducing in population in the region. With this cooperation programme, the two provinces expect to provide enough breeding fish to local fishermen.

 

An Giang is determined to develop fisheries on the basis of rational combination of catching, culturing and processing to create a larger volume of commercial fishes, bringing the fisheries sector to a new high and making it a spearhead economic sector.

 

However, Mr Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of the An Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said, the province’s aquaculture area is estimated at 2,550 ha, including nursery ponds, in 2009, in which 1,068 ha is for tra catfish, a decrease of 11 percent. The yearly aquatic output is estimated at 285,625 tonnes, down 8.8 percent from 2008 (or a decrease of 31,100 tonnes), in which tra and basa catfish output is 240,000 tonnes, down 11.5 percent (or 31,200 tonnes). The decline in fish output, especially tra and basa, is attributed to increasing unused areas because of falling demand. In An Giang, only Viet An Company, which is processing some 6,000 tonnes a year, is allowed to export to Russia. Meanwhile, fish feed prices continue to rise, leading to higher production costs, while selling prices are unexpectedly low, causing serious losses by many fishermen. Currently, processing plants in the province are facing the potential threat of insufficient inputs. The bred fish output is expected to reach 285,625 tonnes in 2009, down 9.5 percent from 2008 (or a decline of 29,800 tonnes), in which tra and basa catfish production totals 240,000 tonnes, down 11.5 percent (or 31,200 tonnes).

 

From 2009 and following years, the fisheries sector in An Giang province will continue to help increase the provincial export revenues. The locality is working with regional provinces to rezone aquaculture water surfaces to enhance food safety and hygiene to increase export revenues of fish and create a famous trademark of the Mekong Delta region. At the same time, the provincial agriculture will continue working with districts to rezone fish culturing areas, encourage local fishermen to expand culturing areas to boost productivity and expand production to reduce cost prices. Specifically, the province has carried out many programmes to diversify the fisheries, apply SQF standards in tra catfish culturing, etc. An Giang is also completing codes to grant to local fishermen to manage fishing farms and refer sources of fish to improve the product quality and value.