Sea grape producers in south central Khanh Hoa province are now paying more attention to process and package to better attract domestic and overseas consumers. (Photo: VNA) With productivity of 1-1.5 tonnes per hectare and a price of 35,000-40,000VND per kilo, sea grape growers have enjoyed improved incomes.
Sea grape grower Dang Ngoc Thoai of Ninh Hai Ward, Ninh Hoa Town in KhanhHoa said he earned a profit of 100-200 million VND per hectare from growing seagrapes.
Now, he has about five hectares of sea grapes. In harvest time, hehires about 10 people to help collect, sort and process sea grapes.
"Sea grape cultivation does not require huge investment but canbring stable income and jobs,” he said.
Besides his own products, Thoai also buys those of other growers in hisneighbourhood to supply the domestic market and to export.
However, like many other sea grape growers in the ward, Thoai is workingin an area that is part of a delayed project.
“Once the project resumes, I will have to move,” Thoai said, adding thathe will invest more to develop the business if he finds a different cultivationarea.
Tran Thanh Tung, Vice Chairman of the Ninh Hai Ward People’s Committee,said all 27ha of sea grape cultivation area in the ward was on land slatedfor a heavy industry complex project by the Korean investor STX Group.
“However, since the land was transferred to the investor in 2009, no itemhas been developed and the area has been unused,” Tung said.
Vo Khanh Dang, Chairman of the Ninh Tho Commune People’s Committee inNinh Hoa Township, said local farmers shifted to grow sea grapes to earn morethan from traditional aquaculture products.
However, they had not found stable outputs for their sea grapes and hadto accept the prices that wholesalers offered.
There was about 20ha in the ward being used for sea grape cultivation, Dangsaid, adding that local authorities were considering placing sea grapes on thelist of key farming products to develop.
“To include sea grapes in the local farming development planning, weneed more studies and assistance from expert agencies,” he said.
Le Ben, Vice President of the Vietnam Seaculture Association, who introducedsea grape cultivation to Vietnam in 2004 in Ninh Hai Ward, said the cultivationwas very promising and generated economic benefits.
Besides economic benefits, sea grapes can improve the aquacultureenvironment quality since they develop quickly, have strong anabolism and highnutrition uptake. They can be grown while cultivating shrimps and fish – thisintercropping allows two to three times higher income compared with shrimp orfish cultivation alone.
Sea grapes are a highly nutritious plant that can be used as asubstitute for green vegetables. They contain high quantities of protein andminerals, such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium, as well as iodine,iron and vitamin A, which help prevent malnutrition and anaemia.
Sea grape cultivation is now present in several coastal provinces in Vietnam,including Khanh Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Kien Giang and Vung Tau ,PhuYen, Binh Dinh in the south and Quang Ninh in the north.
“Seeing high profits from sea grape cultivation, many farmers are rushinginto it,” Bền said, adding that oversupply and improper farming technique couldleave negative impacts on the emerging sector./.
VNA
