While most fish farmers in the Mekong Delta are anxious about World Wildlife Fund putting Vietnam's tra fish on "Don't buy" list, those in Dong Thap Province's Hong Ngu District still enjoyed a booming yield thanks to the cooperative model.
“I have just harvested 1,000 tons of small fishes weighted 750-850 gram per one and earned the highest-ever net profit of more than VND3 billion (US$150,000) from selling to the seafood exporter Bianfishco at the price of VND23,000 per kilogram,” said farmer Ho Thi Kim Tho of Hong Ngu District.
Tho said she made a big profit of more than VND8 billion from nearly 3,000 tons of tra fishes so far this year as local exporters bought at high prices.
“I earned more than VND5 billion from selling 2,000 tons of fishes to Bianfishco. This is the amount that I’ve dared not to dream of before,” Nam Phuc, another farmer in the district, said.
Farmers said the cooperation with local seafood exporters helped them made good profits this year. “Since we cooperated with seafood firms, we’ve not been worried about finding buyers, while they helped us to improve our breeding methods,” said a fish farmer in Hong Ngu District.
Bianfishco, also known as Binh An Seafood Co., said it bought fishes from farmers in the Mekong Delta’s provinces of Can Tho, An Giang and Vinh Long to export into the U.S. and Euro.
The cooperative model with farmers directly selling fishes to seafood enterprises was proving to be an adequate way to boost the seafood industry’s growth, said deputy minister of agriculture and rural development Luong Le Phuong.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development asked relevant units to shut down the seafood plants, which are not qualified for hygiene standards.
The Ministry also instructed the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) to adjust their seafood firms ranking, relying on quality instead of quantity.
Raising exported pangasius price
At a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s 20 leading seafood exporters came to an agreement to raise the exported price of tra fish white fillet to $3 per kilogram and red fillet to $2.05 per kilogram. The increase will not be applied to the U.S.’s buyers.
Raising exported prices will encourage local exporters to buy tra fishes at the price of VND21,000 per kilogram or more, which will ensure farmers can make good profits, according to VASEP.
Statistics from the State Bank of Vietnam show that the outstanding loans for agriculture sector reached more than VND358 trillion ($17.9 billion) in the first ten months of the year, of which loans for tra fish farmers rising by 10.5 times of 1998’s figure.
