Shrimp sector sinks in challenges

Vietnam’s commercial shrimp can not compete against Ecuador’s and India’s due to higher prices.

In the morning of July 01, Chairman of Sóc Trăng  provincial People’s Committee Trần Văn Lâu and local leaders discussed difficulties in culture and processing of shrimp for exports and worked out solutions.

Slump in output and prices

According to a seafood trading business in Trần Đề district of Sóc Trăng province, the price of white leg shrimp size 20 pcs/kg reduced to 160,000 dong/kg from 200,000 dong/kg.

Not only big size shrimp but also small size shrimp were sold at lower prices. White leg shrimp size 50 pcs/kg were sold at 90,000 dong, versus 128,000 dong in late January. White leg shrimp size 60 pcs/kg dropped to 88,000 dong, versus 118,000 dong before; and the price of white leg shrimp size 100 pcs/kg fell to 76,000 dong, versus 92,000 dong before.

For each ton of shrimp size 20 pcs/kg farmers lost 130 million dong as compared to the price in the half past year. The price of shrimp size 90-100 pcs/kg dropped the least but over 15 million dong/ton was vaporized.

According to Vice Chairman of the Sóc Trăng province People’s Committee Vương Quốc Nam, the output of shrimp in the first six months of 2023 decreased by 17% year on year.

However, the province expects to harvest 200,000 tons of brackish water shrimp as planned.

Juveniles got infected from parent broodstocks

According to the General Director of a company related to food production in An Nghiệp Industrial Zone, many farmers and businesses are suffering from losses when accidentally bought infected shrimp breeding stocks.

Shrimp juveniles, that were infected from parent broodstocks, can not grow up and are vulnerable to diseases. Farmers have to spend a lot of money on aquatic animal drugs, leaving a huge amount of production cost.

Phan Bảo Trân from Trân An Phú Ltd., Co, a company in Hồ Chí Minh city related to aquatic animal drug production and shrimp culture in Sóc Trăng said that falling prices causes difficulties to farmers, especially those who can’t afford feed by cash.

In Trân’s opinion, feed prices range just between 28,000 and 30,000 dong/kg if farmers pay by cash. But in case of debit, they have to pay agents 38,000 – 40,000 for each kg of feed. The difference can reach 30% as for aquatic animal drugs.

“We hope that the province creates favorable conditions for farmers to approach credit packages so that they have cash to buy feed and aquatic animal drugs; and as such they can compete against shrimp from other countries. Prices of shrimp in Ecuador and India are lower than Vietnamese shrimp up to tens of thousand dong per kilogram”, emphasized Trân.

Huỳnh Ngọc Nhã, Director of Sóc Trăng provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the country has over 2,000 facilities of breeding stocks, producing 150 billion pcs per year. However, many of them sell low quality shrimp breeds to the market.

“We used to carry out a campaign of checking breeding stocks and discovered disqualified and unquarantined samples. This matter has been reported to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Directorate of Fisheries with an aim to completely terminate production facilities of disqualified shrimp breeding stocks and prevent disease outbreaks”, said Nhã.

According to the leader of Sóc Trăng’s agricultural sector, the success rate of shrimp culture in Vietnam is lower than in Ecuador and India because these two countries master the technology of producing SPF and SPR breeding stocks. Meanwhile in Vietnam, breeding stocks with specific pathogens result in a low success rate, hence low profit, high risks, and high production costs.

(Source: https://vietfishmagazine.com/)

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