Kien Giang strives to surpass the mark of 100,000 tons of farmed shrimp

The agricultural sector is promoting high-tech shrimp farming development solutions, striving to increase the farmed shrimp output, reaching 105,000 tons this year.

Kien Giang's agricultural sector focuses on managing the quality of stocked shrimp seed in order to increase aquaculture production. Photo: Trung Chanh.

Strongly develop shrimp farming

The districts of U Minh Thuong (An Bien, An Minh, U Minh Thuong and Vinh Thuan) are the largest shrimp-rice farming areas in Kien Giang province. At this time, the shrimp farming schedule has gradually reached the end of the crop, farmers are focusing on harvesting in the next 1-2 months, then salt-wash to prepare for the rice crop rotation. Despite being affected by adverse weather, drought, and Covid-19 causing difficulties for circulation, shrimp productivity and prices in the first months of this year were quite stable.

As of early July, farmers in Kien Giang have raised shrimp and rice in an area of over 98,000 ha. There are nearly 27,000 hectares for freshwater shrimp farming, and the rest is black tiger prawn or a combination of black tiger prawn and whiteleg shrimp. The harvested output so far has reached over 57,000 tons. To be specific, the whiteleg shrimp output is more than 18,000 tons, giant freshwater prawn is nearly 7,000 tons, and the rest are black tiger prawns raised according to the shrimp - rice, shrimp - forest models…

According to the plan of Kien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 2021 aquaculture production target is 799,000 tons, including exploitation and farming; shrimp farming in brackish water, in particular, is 98,000 tons. As a result, in the first 6 months, the output has reached over 412,000 tons, including fishing of nearly 286,000 tons and aquaculture of over 126,000 tons.

Strive to surpass the mark of 100,000 tons of farmed shrimp

Upon implementing solutions to develop the agricultural sector, Kien Giang province strives for the total fishery output in the remaining 6 months of 2021 to reach about 391,000 tons, contributing to raising the total seafood output of the whole year to more than 803,000 tons.

The MARD has sent an official dispatch to localities on strengthening the direction of the 2021 brackish water shrimp farming development. In accordance with the assessment, the Covid-19 situation still remains complicated in the world, several countries with large shrimp production volume were severely affected, leading to a significant reduction in production, causing a shortage in the market's supply.

As shared by Mr. Le Huu Toan, Deputy Director of Kien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, following the direction of the MARD, the province has strengthened the direction on implementing the 2021 brackish water farming plan in order to increase harvest volume. The industry has also built two scenarios for growth in the seafood sector, depending on weather and climate, livestock diseases and the Covid-19 epidemic affecting the circulation of goods and the consumption of agricultural products.

Particularly for brackish water shrimp, this is a commodity recognized by Kien Giang province to possess advantages, thanks to its long coastline and wide coastal land, suitable for farming. In 2021, Kien Giang agricultural sector has had their stocking plan for 136,000 ha, with the harvest output exceeds 100,000 tons. The area sown has been over 128,000 ha, specifically industrial shrimp farming is 2,258 ha, mainly whiteleg shrimp.