Over 1.8 billion pangasius juveniles are produced

To satisfy the demand for high quality pangasius juveniles for process and export, ĐồngTháp has built 118 production facilities and 1,455 hatcheries, expecting to produce over 1.8 billion pangasius fingerlings. That’s up 50 million ones from last year.

The province produced 25 billion pangasius fries in 2019, up 5 billion ones from last year.

To produce high quality broodstock, the province has 9 production facilities receive more than 6,700 pangasius from the Research Institute for Aquaculture no.2 where can provide 40,000 more broodfish for replacement.

Mừng Liên Broodstock Company said each nursery last 2.5-3 months with average production cost ranging at 22,000 dong/kg. Hồng Ngự district produces the most pangasius juveniles of all provinces in the Mekong Delta with annual provision of 15 billion fingerlings and over 700 million juveniles to companies and households in and outside the province. However, the consumption of pangasius is facing some challenges due to the infinite supply and enough stocking. The price of pangasius juvenile size 28-32 pcs/kg ranges from 17,000 – 19,000 dong/kg.

The Chairman of Vietnam Pangasius Association Dương Quốc Nghĩa said the Đồng Tháp and An Giang were two provinces of the Mekong Delta to be included in the plan of three-stage pangasius production. The Đồng Tháp alone will carry out the second and third stage.The second stage includes companies and qualified pangasius production facilities. The third stage is when the fries from stage 2 are raised to fingerlings and juveniles to provide the member companies and farms upon their orders. 

He added that it was difficult to control the production of pangasius as farmers used to produce pangasius spontaneously and the farming area was not planned. The three-stage production system was then established to stabilize the farming area and stimulate the stage of development. Đồng Tháp is making effort to produce 27 billion fries, 4.5 billion fingerlings and 1.9 billion juveniles.

During 2018-2020, Đồng Tháp selected 4-5 facilities and qualified companies to receive 5,000 broodstocks and 7,500 replaced pangasius, providing 50% of the demand of high quality pangasius fries of around 700 million ones.

The local facilities participating in the third stage will be put in the planning of pangasius fry production and provided growing area among total 420 hectares in Hồng Ngự town of Hồng Ngự district, Cao Lãnh, and Châu Thành districts.