The fishing village becomes destotitute
In areas raising Pangasius material now in An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho…, the scene of ponds are suspended everwhere, the fishing village is gloomy and deserted. From the slogan “ every house raises fishes and everyone raises fishes”, in the past, the pond followed one another, but now just single scattered ponds

Mr Le Chi Binh, deputy chairman of An Giang association of seafood, said : “the pangasius material is now bought by many enterprises with price from 15.000 to 15.200 VND a kilogram, while the cost for investing 1 kilogram mature fish ( type 1 ) in past was about 15.000 – 15.500 VND, the raisers lost from 200 to 700 VND a kilogram. Besides, the feed price is increasing now, they must be lost about 1.000 VND / kilogram”.

Mr. Binh also said that the An Giang povince now has about 1.000 hectares to raise cá commercial pangasius, meanwhile, there are 23 factories processing export seafood. Therefore, many factories just operate perfunctorily, even some factories stop working because of lack of pangasius material.

In Dong Thap province, from now till ending of year, the province just has about 40.000 pangasius material, in which, the factories in province need more than 2.000 tonnes of pangasius material everyday. “ Lacking pangasius material from now till ending of year will be more seriously” – Mr. Duong Nghia Quoc, chairman of Dong Thap asoociation of seafood considered.

According to the incompleted statistics, the An Giang province now has more than 200 hectares suspended ponds. “ the feed price’s increase makes farmers afraid of invseting for raising again, therefore, the raising areas reduce strongly. Though the pangasius material price increases, but the feed price also increases, it makes farmers have no profit. For each kilogram commercial pangasius, the farmers have to get profit more than 2.000 VND ( similar to 20% ) in order that they can definitely invest it “

The Dong Thap associtaion of seafood also identifies that there are 71 householders raising pangasius have stopped raising with more than 200 hectares, this makes the lack of pangasius material in this province is more serious

Just 50 % power in operation
The process factories of export shrimp in the Mekong Delta are also in the same situation. Mr. Tran Thien Hai – chairman of Vietnam association of seafood exporters and producers said that for half of this month, the shrimp material providing for the seafood process and export factories has dropped seriously. Meanwhile, exporting of shrimp in 2009 is more advanced than last year, the enterprises signed many agreements, especially, they exported to many new potential markets.

Mr. Quach Van Dua, director of Gia Rai seafood process and export company ( Rach Rai district, Bac Lieu province ) said that the black tiger shrimp in the area is very limitted, chiefly extensive farming shrimp with low output, not satisfy the factories’ demand for process. Mr. Ta Minh Phu, deputy director of Agriculrure and rural development department in Bac Lieu, said that there are 15 factories processing export seafood with power of 50.000 tonnes a year. All factories meet difficulties and just operate perfunctorily, some just operate about 50% power, even others let workers stop working in shifts. Mr. Phu forecast that this lack of material will last for a long time.

Source: Thanh Nien

Translated by Vietfish Community