Aquatic production focuses on serving domestic market

Particularly, aquatic production in May was estimated at 797,000 tons, up 1.7 percent over the same period last year, including fish with 581,000 tons, up 1.5 percent; shrimps with 88,000 tons, up 5.5 percent; other types of aquatic products with 128,000 tons, up 0.3 percent.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, from the beginning of this year to now, fishery production has started to recover.

Of which, aquaculture production was estimated to reach 432,600 tons, up 2.7 percent compared to the same period last year. An Giang Province led the list of provinces with top aquaculture production with 32,300 tons, down 6.1 percent. Can Tho came next with 16,600 tons, down 4.9 percent, followed by Ben Tre with 11,800 tons, down 32.4 percent. Explaining the decreases in aquaculture production, the representatives of many provinces said that saltwater intrusion at the beginning of the year has affected the living environment, the growth, and development of shrimps, leading to additional costs, and reducing the shrimp-farming area. The production of white-leg shrimps alone increased significantly, but there were no buyers so households have been raising shrimps perfunctorily and have not harvested shrimps immediately.

Meanwhile, the production of wild aquatic products was estimated at 364,900 tons, up 0.6 percent over the same period last year. The sharp drop in fuel prices was a good condition for farmers to head for the open sea but due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, consumption tended to decline, affecting the revenues of fishermen.

For the first five months of this year, seafood production was estimated at 3,043,000 tons, up 2.2 percent compared to the same period last year. In particular, aquaculture production reached 1,541,500 tons, up 6.8 percent; fishing production was estimated at 1,501,500 tons, down 2.2 percent, of which, the production of marine capture fisheries reached 1,437,100 tons, down 2.1 percent. However, due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, it mainly served the domestic market. The inventory of processed seafood products was high, causing the purchasing price of raw materials to drop.