1:28:35 PM | 1/9/2006
We visited shrimp fry farm of the CP Group of Thailand in An Hai commune, Ninh Phuoc district, Ninh Thuan province, on a hot day. Receiving us was Ravee Kongsaeng, head of the farm, with a smile. Kongsaeng said that the environment with clean atmosphere and water was ideal for farming shrimp fries.
Gift of nature
Ravee took us to every corner of the farm, from a salt water reservoir to shrimp ponds, laboratories and seaweed farming areas as feed for shrimps. He said that only workers were allowed to enter the area. Tight procedures for shrimp farming plus naturally favourable conditions help the farm produce high quality shrimp fries, which have been highly spoken of customers. In the first half of 2006 alone, the CP farm produced 400 million shrimp post-larvae, bringing total output of shrimp fries of Ninh Thuan to over 5.1 billion of shrimp post-larvae per annum.
Producing shrimp fries is considered as the biggest investment opportunity in fisheries in Ninh Thuan province. Recently, the Minh Phu Seafood Joint stock Company has decided to invest VND 55 billion in building the disease-free shrimp fry farm of An Hai, capable of producing 5 billion shrimp post-larvae per annum. The company is building facilities of the farm to put it into operation late this year.
Apart from black tiger shrimp fries, Ninh Thuan is developing the production of fries of lobsters, fragrant snails, red alga (kappaphycus alvarezii) and fish, including red belly pacu (colossoma brachypomum), tilapia and carps. In addition, many coastal areas in Ninh Thuan have favourable conditions for farming black tiger shrimps, red alga and fragrant snails with between 4,500 and 5,000 hectares. Area for farming black tiger shrimps is 1,500 hectares, capable of producing 4,000 tonnes per annum; red alga, over 700 hectares with an output of between 5,000 and 6,000 tonnes per annum. Currently, the Khang Thach Company has invested in a project on farming fragrant snail fries with a capacity of 100 million fries to become the biggest farm in Vietnam.
Other seafood exploiting opportunities
Another important potential of Ninh Thuan province is a long coast, 105 kilometres, with various seafood species. With a reserve of 120,000 tonnes, each year, the province can net 60,000 tonnes. In addition, the Ninh Chu beach is suitable for ships and boats to hide from storms. The Ministry of Fisheries has planned to build the Ninh Chu port into a hide-away area for fishing boats and ships in Central Vietnam. At the same time, Ninh Thuan province has built two other fishing ports, including Ca Na and Dong Hai, as well as the wharf of My Tan, in combination with the formation of fishing support services. The Ca Na fishing port alone will be upgraded by the Ministry of Fisheries into the busiest fishing port in the region.
Luu Xuan Vinh, director of the Ninh Thuan Department of Fisheries, said in general, Ninh Thuan fisheries sector in the 2001-2005 period gained an average growth rate of 14.6 per cent per year. In the first half of 2006 alone, despite many difficulties, the figure reached 7.2 per cent.