For the past month, the price of pangasius feed has continuously increased, and farmers in Vietnam are facing the risk of loss.
By the end of 2022, seafood export turnover will reach US$11 billion, bringing Vietnam into the top three seafood exporting countries in the world. Being one of the top rice exporters in the world, Vietnam is considered a country with strengths in agriculture; the Mekong Delta – which is known as the country’s rice bowl and seafood bowl – plays a very important role. Therefore, people hope that the domestic animal and aqua feed production industry will soon grow with the output of export products.
When pig farmers stopped using by-products such as mixing bran (leftover) with banana stalks as feed for pigs, it is also a time to mark their dependence on processing industrial feed. Small-scale farming gradually disappeared, giving way to large farming to meet the needs of the market. This is also the general development of livestock, poultry and aquaculture industries.
Dong Thap and An Giang provinces in the Mekong Delta are considered cradles for raising pangasius and basa fish for export throughout the country. An Nhon commune, Chau Thanh district, Dong Thap province has 170ha of water surface area for raising catfish (pangasius) with an annual harvest of 45,000-50,000 tons. However, pangasius farmers have recently been double affected by the Covid-19 epidemic and the continuously increased price of feed.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Director of Chau Thanh Seafood Production and Service Cooperative in Dong Thap Province’s Chau Thanh District, said that in 2021-2022, the price of pangasius fluctuates from VND 21,000 to VND22,200 a kg, currently at about VND28,000 a kg.
Although the selling price of fish is higher than before, at this price, farmers can not make a profit because the price of fish food has increased many times pushing up the cost of raising fish; plus, the rearing period lasts 14-15 months until a pangasius fish weighs 1.2-1.4 kg.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh pointed to the pangasius farming cellar about 5,000 square meters saying that 300,000 pangasius fish about five months old eat about 1.5 tons of food daily while the price increases by more than VND1,000 a kg. Consequently, the fish has been starved for three days while farmers are waiting for an increase in price.
In localities with large shrimp farming areas such as Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang, and Kien Giang, farmers are worried much more when shrimp prices tended to decrease but the price of aqua feed always increased. A shrimp exporter in Soc Trang said that high feed prices are one of the culprits pushing Vietnam’s shrimp farming costs highest in the world, so there must be a solution to reduce costs.