Localities urged to gear towards shrimp production targets

The localities should push the building and issuance of policies to attract investments in the local shrimp sector, and take measures to encourage effective models of production connectivity and cooperatives in the sector, the ministry said. 

Besides, the ministry urged the localities to allocate sufficient resources to implement projects within the national action plan, while paying attention to environmental forecast, disease prevention, especially in centralised shrimp farming areas, and the provision of market and disease information for shrimp breeders.

Apart from closely monitoring quality and food safety of shrimp products, the localities need to build and update databases on both domestic and foreign markets and inform relevant agencies, businesses and farmers about the updates. 

The ministry also highlighted the building, protection and development of Vietnamese shrimp brands, along with the control of the use of drugs and chemicals in shrimp breeding. 

The localities should roll out policies encouraging shrimp farms to follow certified standards and apply information-technology in shrimp production, the ministry said. 

Under the national action plan, total export revenue of Vietnamese shrimp products is expected to hit US$10 billion by 2025 and accumulated brackish water shrimp farming area is set at 750,000 ha while total shrimp output is over 1.15 million tonnes. 

According to the action plan, the domestic shrimp industry is expected to gain US$5.5 billion in export value and record an annual average growth of 10.79% in 2017-20, including US$4.5 billion from brackish water shrimp exports. 

The total area rearing brackish water shrimp is estimated to reach 710,000ha, with total output of 850,000 tonnes of shrimp during 2017-20, and expand to 750,000ha and 1.1 million tonnes of output in the period from 2020-25.

Meanwhile during the period of 2017-20, the industry will have a total area of 30,000ha rearing giant freshwater prawn with total output of 30,000 tonnes and one million cubic metres of cage rearing lobster with total output of 2,500 tonnes.

In 2021-25, a hi-tech shrimp industry and large-scale eco-shrimp farming area will be developed. Infrastructure and technical services will be invested in a synchronous, efficient and sustainable manner. The shrimp industry expects to reach US$10 billion in export value and an average growth of 12%-14% per year.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said shrimp exports contributed the most to the total national seafood export value, with a growth rate of 21% to  US$3.8 billion in export value for 2017.