Trà Vinh: Shrimp farmers speed up stocking

The price of black tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp started to rise in late August. Many farmers in coastal areas have focused on speeding up the stocking (mainly white leg shrimp post larvae) as just 115 – 120 days are left till the harvest time.

As of August 2023, the brackish water area for shrimp culture in Trà Vinh reached 29,419 ha, with over 6 billion post larvae being stocked and 73,395.5 tons being harvested already. The farming area of black tiger shrimp reached 23,023.5 ha, with 1.204 billion post larvae being stocked and 11,448.6 tons being harvested, more than 843.9 tons y-o-y. The farming area of white leg shrimp reached 6,395.5 ha, with 4.79 billion post larvae being stocked and 61,046.9 tons being harvested, up 1,717 tons y-o-y.

According to the Trà Vinh provincial department of Agriculture and Rural Development, even though the brackish water crop ends, farmers decide to stock post larvae (mainly white leg ones) at the moment due to the upward trend of selling prices as there are just 120 days for culture and harvest, meaning four months were left. Thus, an extra 2,000 ha will be shrimp farming areas.

During the last ten days of August, the price of 30 count white leg shrimpsranged between 127,000 – 130,000 dong/kg (up 3,000 dong/kg from mid August), the 50 count was at 97,000 – 102,000 dong/kg (up 5,000 dong/kg), the 100 count was at 78,000 – 80,000 dong/kg. The black tiger shrimp size 20 count was sold at 150,000 – 160,000 dong/kg, the 40 count was at 115,000 – 120,000 dong/kg. With such prices, white leg shrimp farmers may earn profit when shrimp reach the size 30 – 50 count.

Lê Trang Diển in Cái Già hamlet of Hiệp Mỹ Đông commune, Cầu Ngang district shared that so as to prepare for the crop in the last 4 months of the year amidst the upward trend of prices, he intends to stock another crop of about 200,000 post larvae of white leg shrimp in Sep 20 on a 900m2 pond..

Farmers are leaning towards scattered farming when shrimp prices decline driven by either weather or disease outbreak. It means farmers will “cut down” the number of crops to avoid damages. The Cầu Ngang district has about 5,400 ha of water surface for brackish water shrimp, with over 3,100 ha of white leg shrimp, over 2,200 ha of black tiger shrimps, and 86 ha of hi-tech based shrimp farms.

Lê Văn Phi, Head of the Office of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cầu Ngang district said that: with the current shrimp prices, most of the local farmers earn profit. With a strong upward trend of the shrimp prices in the last months of the year, the production of white leg shrimp will increase sharply. Other species such as black tiger shrimp and mud crabs are sold at high prices. The output of those rose by 77.6% and 94.1% as compared to the plan of the year.

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

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