Fishery: An Economic Development Lifter of Tra Vinh Province

In 2007, the province harvested 84,198 of tonnes of cultivated fish and shrimp, including 22,742 tonnes of sugpo shrimp and 4,596 tonnes of other shrimp, 2.3 per cent above the year’s plan. In the four coastal districts of Duyen Hai, Cau Nganh, Tra Cu and Chau Thanh, 24,274 households cultivated 25,000 hectares of water surface, which provided 22,742 tonnes of commercial sugpo shrimp, up 3,028 tonnes against 2006. Besides, the province consolidated and developed three cooperatives and five cooperative teams with 1,852 member households in Duyen Hai, Cau Ngang and Chau Thanh districts. They reared 570 tonnes of clams on 2,196 hectares of coastal alluvium. At the same time, fishermen also used more than 9,062.2 hectares of pond water surface to feed other types of fish. Consequentially, fishermen raised 5,343 tonnes of clams and 200 tonnes of arca, valued at over VND27.7 billion.

 

In the collecting and processing industries, local enterprises such as Cuu Long Seafood Joint Stock Company, Long Toan Frozen Seafood Joint Stock Company, Duyen Hai Food Processing Enterprise and Dinh An Production and Trading Co. Ltd, focused on expanding production scale, renovating equipment and applying modern technology to diversify export products. Particularly, Cuu Long Seafood Joint Stock Company invested more than VND9 billion to build a freezer warehouse with capacity of 1,000 tonnes per year. Especially, these four enterprises have purchased and processed 23,000 tonnes of aquatic materials such as sugpo shrimp, crayfish, clams, tra catfish and others, in which sugpo shrimp account for 8,000 tonnes and tra catfish 7,400 tonnes. They turned out 12,000 tonnes of finished products and exported 10,000 tonnes at a combined value of US$50 million.

 

According to Mr Tran Hoang Phuc, Deputy Director of Tra Vinh Fisheries Department, in 2007 the province had 23,967 fishery households which harvested 22,682 tonnes of commercial sugpo, a rise of 2,968 tonnes against 2006. According to statistics, as many as 16,766 sugpo shrimp raising households (70.51 per cent) made profit. Sugpo shrimp is sold at an average price of VND55,000-145,000 per kilo. Fishermen earned VND5-15 million more per hectare than in 2000. The quality of sugpo shrimp is also higher than other localities, because local fishermen use mussels to feed shrimp. On average, Tra Vinh produces more than 1.4 billion breeding shrimp per year. This is an advantage in production cost and supply source for fishermen.

Defining fishery as a spearhead economic sector for the coming year, in 2007 the Tra Vinh Province People’s Committee approved the zoning of catfish growing areas in Tieu Can and Cau Ke districts, detailed fishery area in Duyen Hai District and fish-breeding area in Cau Ngang, Chau Thanh and Duyen Hai districts. At the same time, it also cooperated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to outline catfish farming zones in Cang Long and Chau Thanh districts and Tra Vinh Town.

 

In February 2007, Tra Vinh put Dinh An fishing port into operation. It also started operating irrigation to provide water for 450 hectares in My Long Nam Commune and Hiep My - Cau Ngang breeding centre. By the end of 2007, the province basically completed the construction of Lang Chim fishing port. It audited and settled payment for four finished projects, Lang Chim fishing port, Dinh An fishing port, an industrial shrimp breeding area and a sea wall. Meanwhile, Cuu Long Seafood Joint Stock Company started operating its freezer warehouse. In 2008, the Tra Vinh Department of Fisheries and Infrastructure Construction Management Authority will cooperate in building aquatic development projects such as Cau Nghe freshwater fish rearing area, La Ghi - Vam Rach Co irrigation system (in Long Vinh Commune, Duyen Hai District), a shrimp farm in Long Hoa Commune (Chau Thanh District) and Ngai Hiep fish farm (Chau Thanh District).