Pham Tung Chanh
A farmer feeds tra fish in the Mekong Delta - Photo: Ngoc Tung
The unprocessed tra fish in the Mekong Delta – the country’s key tra fish producing region – is sold at VND24,600-24,800 per kilo, up VND200-300 a kilo against early last week. Meanwhile, the price of fresh tra fish has kept increasing since early last month, staying at around VND25,000-26,000 a kilo now.
The current prices ensure profits of VND1,500-2,000 per kg for growers in the Mekong Delta. However, they have all decreased the scale of their tra fish farms, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Compared to 2013, the total area under tra fish cultivation in Dong Thap Province has been reduced by 2.9% and farmers in Vinh Long Province have narrowed their tra fish farms by 2.3%, the ministry said.
Thai An Lai, chairman of the Dong Thap Seafood Association, said in recent years, along with slow demand, prices of tra fish had stayed low, putting farmers in a difficult position and forcing them to reduce farms.
Nguyen Huu Nguyen, head of the Chau Phu tra fish cooperative in An Giang Province, said he had kept only two ponds for the fish instead of tens of ponds as before.
In Tra Vinh Province, where the seafood industry has developed quite strongly so far, tra fish breeding covers around four hectares, equivalent to one fourth of the area in previous years.
Explaining for the reduction, the Tra Vinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said the low prices in the years before resulted in big losses for growers.
Nguyen said the recent jump in tra fish prices had encouraged many growers to widen their farms, but it was difficult for them to find investments despite a soft-interest loan policy of the central bank.
Commenting on the tra fish market in the Mekong Delta, analysts said most of the fish at farms now did not belong to individual growers but enterprises, so these entities would benefit most from higher tra fish prices.
Tra fish enterprises are increasing investments in processed products to get higher profits after the significant rise in tra fish prices.
Hung Vuong JSC in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, managed to buy a large volume of unprocessed tra fish for storage in February, when prices of the fish were VND1,000-1,500 per kg lower than now. The country’s third largest tra fish exporter is taking steps to speed up its shipments this year.
Hung Vuong is aiming for this year’s revenue of VND14 trillion (US$664.16 million) with the profit before tax of VND700 billion (US$33.3 million), compared to VND311 billion of last year.
Vinh Hoan Corp. in Dong Thap Province, the country’s biggest tra fish exporter, is spending more in processing tra products. The corporation expects to earn profits of VND35 billion this year, VND49 billion next year and VND118 billion by 2016 from the collagen products.
Hung Ca Co., Ltd. in Dong Thap Province, one of the businesses having the biggest tra fish farms now, will continue expanding its operations this year. Its deputy director Tran Van Han said exports to Europe, South America, Middle East and Asia fared well with its export turnover up 37% last year over 2012.
Hung Ca is now expanding its production and hiring more workers to realize its target for revenue growth of 50% this year.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
