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Black tiger shrimp drops to 10-year low
Though Cuu Long River Delta provinces have entered the final stage of shrimp harvesting, the shrimp price on the market has been sliding continuously.
In Bac Lieu town, black tiger shrimp is selling at VND75-80,000/kg (30 shrimp per kilogramme) or VND60-65,000/kg (40 shrimp per kilogramme). As such, farmers are losing VND30-40,000/kg on every kilogramme of shrimp compared to the same period of last year.
Luong Le Phuong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), said that the shrimp consumption in the world has been decreasing sharply due to the global recession. Exports to the US and Japan, the main markets for Vietnamese shrimp exports, have decreased considerably, while domestic shrimp material prices have dropped to the deepest low in the past decade.
Farmers in Bac Lieu province have had a good shrimp harvest, but this cannot bring them a lot of profit. Shrimp prices have been decreasing due to the frozen export markets. A lot of shrimp processing workshops have stopped collecting material shrimp, while farmers still have to pay for food for aquaculture, and veterinary medicine to maintain their shrimp ponds, the prices of which have increased by two- or three-fold over the same period of last year. Many households have had to bargain away shrimp since they do not have any money to maintain their ponds.
Due to the stagnant exports, big seafood processing companies, including Minh Phu and Phuong Nam, have been just collecting shrimp materials at a moderate level. Only companies which have given capital support to aquaculture households still have to purchase shrimp, despite the slow exports.
Farmers in Bac Lieu have had a good crop, but they have to pay a lot for food and medicine for shrimp. For example, as farmers purchased food on credit, they have to pay the interest rate of 10-15% for every pack of food. This has pushed the production cost of one kilogramme of shrimp to VND80,000/kg (30 shrimp per kilogramme), equivalent to the current sale price.
The decreasing shrimp material prices have led to a big volume of unsold shrimp in Bac Lieu province. The Bac Lieu People’s Committee has called for local seafood processing workshops to collect shrimp from farmers. However, as the market has narrowed, while the black tiger shrimp has to compete with white-leg shrimp, sales have been going very slowly.
Farmers now seem to have no strength left, as material shrimp prices have been decreasing gradually as a result of the financial crisis, while food for shrimp keeps rising.
Tran Van Thuan, a farmer in An Minh Bac commune in U Minh Thuong district in Kien Giang province, related that when the harvest began, big shrimp (20 shrimp per kilogramme) sold for VND150,000/kg, but the price has dropped to VND110,000/kg now, while it is not easy to hatch such big shrimp. Meanwhile, smaller shrimp (30 shrimp per kilogramme) are selling at VND70-80,000/kg only. “How can farmers live if even the 40-unit-per-kilogramme shrimp is cheaper than tiny shrimp?” he complained.
TBKTVN
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