Bac Lieu moves towards country’s shrimp production hub

Bac Lieu (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu is rolling out measures to turn it into a shrimp production hub of the country, said Deputy Secretary Party Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of the province Duong Thanh Trung.

The provincial leader said that Bac Lieu aims to take the lead in high technology research and application in shrimp industry, focusing on prawn seeds and commercial shrimp production and processing.

Bac Lieu expects to lure investment and resources to create momentum to promote the national shrimp industry and supporting sectors in other nearby localities and the whole country.

The locality aims to produce 32-35 billion prawn fry in 2020 and about 40-45 billion prawn fry in 2025, with higher quality through years.

In 2025, shrimp farming area will be expanded to 147,900 hectares with an expected output of 249,000 tonnes. More than 30 percent of producers and businesses, and nine farming regions with total area of 3,890 hectares are hoped to use high technology in production, while 30 percent are subjected to meet VietGAP, GlobalGAP and ASC standards.

In 2020, the volume of processed shrimps is expected to reach 98,300 tonnes in 2020 and 120,000 tonnes in 2025, while the export volume is hoped to fetch 73,000 tonnes in 2020 and 90,000 tonnes in 2025.

The province is working towards 100 percent of processed shrimps meeting the standards of the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD) as well as the requirements of the world and import countries. In 2025, the capacity of local shrimp processing sector is meant to reach 160,000 tonnes to take the leading position in the country in processing technology.

The cost for the implementation of the scheme is 3 trillion VND (nearly 130 million USD), nearly a half of which comes from the central State budget and 34.22 percent is mobilised from local producers and businesses.

According to Trung, the province will focus on attracting all resources, including mobilised and foreign-invested capital for the sector, with the focus on optimising foreign investment.

Meanwhile, the province will increase investment promotion activities and enhance its provincial competitiveness index to lure more investors, he said. He added that Bac Lieu will organise investment promotion conference in local, regional and national levels.

Alongside, the province will maintain and expand traditional markets of Japan, the US, the EU, China and the Republic of Korea, while exploring more markets in Asia, East Europe, Africa, and South America. The locality will strengthen the capacity in market forecasting and update requirements in import market to support local producers, said Trung.

He said that Bac Lieu will consider the direct supply of shrimp to retail system in import countries instead of through importers, while encouraging and supporting local businesses to register their brand names and promote their products in association with the promotion of Bac Lieu shrimp trademark.

At the same time, Bac Lieu will focus on training high quality human resources for the sector, including high technology officials who involve in fisheries sector management. Workers for high technology production in shrimp industry will also be trained, focusing on shrimp fry production, commercial shrimp farming, and shrimp processing. Personnel in market forecasting and promotion will also be trained.

The province will also promote the transfer of high technology through fishery production companies and processors in the locality.

Bac Lieu will attract high-tech human resources with deep understanding on market and economic management to engage in production, while giving preferential policies to lure high-profile researchers, engineers and managers serving the production, exploitation, processing and exporting of aquatic products, stated Trung./.