Farmers battle epidemics with disease-free breeder shrimp

With the largest shrimp breeding area in the south, Ca Mau Province is increasing its production of disease-free breeder shrimp to supply local farmers.

Ngo Hoang Son, head of Ca Mau Province’s Aquatic Animal Health Bureau, said the rise in production had helped reduce an epidemic of shrimp disease.

"It has also helped secure food hygiene and safety," Son said.

The southernmost province now has 250,000 ha of shrimp and breeds more than 12 billion shrimp a year.

The province’s 842 breeder shrimp farms and centres supply about 6 billion breeder shrimp for local farmers a year, meeting only 50 per cent of the demand of farmers.

Farmers must buy from other provinces that often are supplying poor quality breeder.

Only 30-40 per cent of the purchased shrimp from other provinces can survive disease-free in the new environment.

The province targets production of 6 billion to 7 billion disease-free breeder shrimp a year, Son said.

The province has also targeted supplying 90 per cent of breeder shrimp for farmers in the future, he said.

To encourage farms and centres to produce disease-free breeder shrimp, the provincial authorities have provided incentives for farms and centres, including tax reductions, preferential loans and new farming technology.

The breeder shrimp farms and centres are using shrimp caught in the Ca Mau sea as breeders since they are better suited to the area.

The breeder shrimp farms and centres are also working to set up breeder shrimp co-operatives that supply high quality and disease-free breeder shrimp for local farmers.

The province has about 140,000 household farmers that breed shrimp. The household farmers have harvested 100,000 tonnes of shrimp so far this year, according to provincial authorities.