The goal is to reduce Cambodia’s dependency on lobster imports.
Haing Leap, the deputy director of the Department of Fisheries at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, confirmed the Takeo provincial fisheries department had hatched 300,000 baby lobsters since June and plans to sell 45-day-old lobsters to farmers for USD 0.06 each, Phnom Penh Post reports.
"We want to encourage farmers to raise baby lobsters because we expect they will be able to supply them to local markets," Haing Leap said.
With only 10-20 tonnes of freshwater lobsters harvested locally each year, 3 tonnes of the shellfish are imported from Vietnam to satisfy demand.
Haing Leap linked the low number of locally caught lobsters on the loss of sheltered areas where breeding females could lay eggs and habitat changes.
"We hope that if Cambodian farmers are interested in rearing lobsters, then in no more than five years’ time we will be able to cut lobster imports," he said.
Prum Vath, a lobster farmer in Takeo province’s Angkor Borei district, plans to raise 200,000 baby lobsters for the local market before the end of the year.
He said it takes a minimum of six months to raise them, at which point he sells them for USD 15 - USD 20 a kilo.
"Rearing baby lobsters poses no problems because they are easy to look after and it is easy to find markets," the farmer said.
About 3 per cent of lobsters die before reaching maturity.
The hatching season takes place between June and October, said Haing Leap. It has been estimated that lobster farmers need at least 1.5 million baby lobsters this season.
"If farmers can raise 1-1.5 million lobsters a year, then that will supply local markets with 60-90 tonnes of lobster each year," he said.
In 2005, the Japanese government funded a five-year, USD 5 million project to teach lobster-rearing skills to farmers in a number of the Cambodia’s provinces.
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