Kien Giang Fisheries: Developing Industrial Aquaculture

With a 198 kilometre coastline and abundant seafood resources, Kien Giang province is an important fishing and major aquaculture area in Vietnam. The province intends to concentrate on developing its industrial aquaculture in the future.

Boosting of aquaculture and fishing

Over recent years, economic restructuring from agriculture to aquaculture in Kien Giang province has been effective, creating more jobs and improving the living standards of people in restructured areas.

Kien Giang now has 71,484 hectares devoted to aquaculture. It has 37 establishments for producing seafood fry, which meets about 30 per cent of the demand of local farmers. The province has developed its offshore fishing fleet, improving the quality of its catch. The province now has 7,462 fishing vessels. In the first half of this year, 161 fishing new vessels were built. The total fishing volume of the province reached 143,869 tonnes. The local fisheries extension centre has organised 112 training courses for 4,348 people, covering 18 production models and various seafood species, including black tiger shrimps, mytilus smaragdinus and sweet snails.

Support facilities for fishing developed

Apart from fishing and processing seafood, Kien Giang province has concentrated on developing its fisheries infrastructure. Two fishing ports - Tac Cau and Duong Dong - have been built with investment of VND 90.9 billion (US$5.79 million). Other fishing ports, including Xeo Nhao, Ba Hon and To Chau, and the Lai Son seafood market are under construction. At the same time, the province is completing the development of projects to build storm harbours at Hon Tre and Cau San, the Duong Dong cutwater and the Linh Huynh fishing port for future investment.

Export market expanded

Apart from the collection of materials for export processing being well organised, Kien Giang province has offered incentives to encourage different economic sectors to become involved in the development of the local fisheries sector. Accordingly, state-owned enterprises will build processing establishments and support facilities at the Tac Cau Port as planned with a frozen processed seafood plant. Seafood export enterprises will promote marketing activities with a focus on expanding export markets in Japan, the US and the EU, especially Japan and the US, as they are major markets with stable prices and huge demand for value-added products. They will maintain the volume of seafood products exported to Russia and South Korea. In the first half of this year, state-owned enterprises in Kien Giang collected 35,175 tonnes of seafood, accounting for 24.44 per cent of total fishing volume. Total processed seafood reached 9,282 tonnes.

The sea off Kien Giang province is an important fishing area in Vietnam. The province has therefore developed a plan for its fisheries until 2010. The province will strive to effectively use water surfaces and bays for aquaculture with a focus on the development and expansion of production of seafood products of high economic value, such as fish, sweet snails, pearl oysters and arca. Fisheries areas have been developed using high quality materials which meet export standards. The province will also continue to expand traditional crafts to produce more food for consumers and materials for the processing industry, thereby generating jobs for local impoverished people. At the same time, it will implement priority policies calling on all economic sectors to invest in aquaculture.

Growth of aquaculture in coastal and island areas in Kien Giang province

• Hong Hanh