Safe shrimp farming requires control of the entire chain

Risk must be managed across the entire chain, with control from broodstock, seed, biosecurity, environment to early detection and timely handling of abnormal signs.

Vietnam is currently one of the world’s important shrimp suppliers, exporting to more than 100 markets; in 2025, shrimp export turnover reached about 4.6 billion USD. However, the Vietnamese shrimp industry is now facing many significant difficulties: more frequent diseases, stronger environmental fluctuations, higher input costs and increasingly strict market requirements.

Handle from the root instead of the symptoms

In the context that the Vietnamese shrimp farming industry is facing increasingly strong competition and more complex disease pressure, the necessary direction is not to find a single solution for each problem, but to build a synchronized chain. Only when each link from broodstock, seed, farmers, technical enterprises, management agencies to the market changes toward improving quality, increasing biosecurity, early risk detection and more effective coordination, can the Vietnamese shrimp industry develop in a more stable, efficient and sustainable direction in the future. This is also the core spirit of this presentation: shrimp farming in times of disease must succeed based on a foundation of health, management discipline and proactiveness of the entire chain, not by late stage handling.

According to Mr Trinh Trung Phi, Deputy Technical General Director of Viet Uc Group, if in the past success meant making shrimp survive and grow, now it also requires raising shrimp that are healthy, grow uniformly, have reasonable costs, are traceable and meet quality and food safety standards. This means shrimp farming today is no longer just a matter of pond techniques, but a matter of risk management across the entire chain, from broodstock, seed, biosecurity, environmental management to early detection and timely response to abnormal signs.

“From many years of experience working in broodstock, seed and commercial shrimp, I believe the question ‘Why is shrimp farming becoming more difficult?’ has many answers, many causes and many factors simultaneously affecting ponds. These include pathogens appearing more frequently rather than individually, a more sensitive and unpredictable environment, increasing economic pressure and farmers being forced to get everything right from the beginning if they want to succeed. That means preventing and handling disease from the root, not waiting until ponds are infected and then searching for causes and solutions when it is already too late,” Mr Phi said.

Mr Phi analyzed that if diseases are viewed only by individual agents such as viruses, bacteria or parasites, it is not enough to explain why in the same farming area, same season and even same model, some ponds are severely affected while others are not affected at all. This is the result of the entire chain, from broodstock quality, seed quality, nursery process to transportation, pond preparation, feed management, stocking density, water environment and the farmer’s ability to detect early abnormal signs.

Pathogens may exist beforehand or enter ponds at different times, and only outbreak strongly when conditions are favorable, especially when shrimp are weakened, the environment fluctuates or management processes have gaps. Therefore, many major losses are not caused by “one extremely dangerous disease” but by multiple unfavorable factors accumulating, weakening shrimp resistance, reducing feeding and creating conditions for disease outbreaks. In other words, when disease appears at the end of the chain, the causes have often accumulated from very early at the beginning of the chain.

Therefore, the mindset of disease prevention should not start with the question “What disease is this pond having?” but with the question “Which link in the chain is increasing risk for the pond?”.

Linkages across the entire chain

A reality that needs to be frankly recognized is that farmers cannot solve the disease problem alone if other links in the value chain do not change together. When broodstock and seed quality are inconsistent, when technical information to farmers is fragmented, when many commercial solutions are promoted more than scientific evidence and when disease and environmental warnings do not reach ponds in time, risks will continue to fall on commercial farmers.

Therefore, if farmers are to change effectively, the entire chain must also change. Broodstock and seed producers need to focus on health and stability rather than just supply quantity. Feed, biological products, input materials and technical service enterprises need to accompany farmers with responsible, transparent and science based advice. Management agencies, extension systems, institutes, schools and professional organizations need to strengthen disease monitoring, environmental warnings, standardize technical information and shorten the gap between research and practical production.

When correct information is shared in a timely manner, when inputs are improved, when biosecurity is strictly implemented and when each component in the chain clearly understands its responsibility, farmers will have the conditions to organize production in a more stable and sustainable way. This is the foundation to move from “shrimp farming to handle problems” to “shrimp farming through management and coordination of the entire value chain”.

In the context that the Vietnamese shrimp industry is facing increasingly strong competition and more complex disease pressure, the necessary direction is not to find a single solution for each problem, but to build a synchronized approach for the entire chain. Only when each link from broodstock, seed, farmers, technical enterprises, management agencies to the market changes toward improving quality, increasing biosecurity, early risk detection and more effective coordination, can the Vietnamese shrimp industry develop in a more stable, efficient and sustainable direction. This is also the core spirit of this presentation: shrimp farming in times of disease must succeed based on a foundation of health, management discipline and proactiveness of the entire chain, not by late handling.

“Disease prevention does not lie in handling when shrimp are already infected, but in better control of inputs, including seed selection, stricter biosecurity processes, more stable environmental management and earlier detection of abnormalities. This mindset also helps avoid fragmented practices, where each time a problem arises, people only look for a drug or an immediate solution while the root cause has not been addressed,” said Mr Trinh Trung Phi, Deputy Technical General Director of Viet Uc Group.

Source: https://agriculture.vn/