Farmers see high profit from crunchy carp farming

Fluctuating price and unstable consuming in rice cultivation has made farmers change their direction to qualified seafood.

Lê Văn Dũng in Phú Thạch A hamplet, Phú Thuận A commune, Hồng Ngự district, Đồng Tháp province was the first one going for crunchy carp farming and now earns over three billion dong every year.

He decided to try this fish in 2012 while learning experiences in Hải Dương province. He thought it was quite potential for farming in southern areas where weather is favorable and price is high. He tried stoking 5,000 fish fries that had their grow-out cycle of eight months. He used industrial feed in the first five months and faba bean when the fish weighed up to one kilogram. Faba bean is rich of protein, starch and contains low amount of lipids, making carps meat be crunchy, tough and delicious.

Crunchy carps are easy to rear as they are immune from many diseases, grow quickly and are sold at high price, and brings much profit to farmers, says Dũng. He has over five tons of crunchy carps sold every month, and yet they are in short supply. He is managing 15 cages where produces and provides 60 tons of crunchy carps to Hồ Chí Minh city, Cần Thơ, Bình Dương and Đồng Nai.

A trader in Cần Thơ, Trần Hoàng Anh, says “we come to see every farmer and buy their crunchy carps. Then we re-sell them to restaurants in Cần Thơ and provinces in Mekong Delta. Crunchy carps are favorite food because of good quality, delicious smell and cleanness. They cost 300-350 thousand dong/kg as processed food”.