Seafood industry generally and shrimp industry specifically play a very important in both economic and social areas, especially in Coastal provinces. Brackish shrimp export accounts for 45% of total seafood export turnover, brackish shrimp is the potential product for seafood industry development in the context of climate change. Annually, seafood products contribute over 3% of Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP). Vietnam's seafood products have been exported to 164 countries around the world, of which shrimp is one of the four key export products, generating employment and income for about 700,000 households. Average growth of shrimp farming and processing reached 6.82% per year…
Vietnam shrimp industry has developed for 20 years with the good momentum of annual increasing productivity and volume. However, recently, shrimp industry has faced difficulties in production: i) high production cost; ii) abuse of aquaculture chemical, medicine; iii) poor infrastructure, limited shrimp farming technology; iv) small-scale production; v) Disease and climate change .... Along with the just mentioned difficulties, there is another big difficulty about lacking shrimp farming experiences and the linkages for sustainable development. The shrimp farming experience sharing is limited because of long-lasting custom of no-sharing experience among shrimp farmers, they keep their own experiences as the secrets to keep production successful. In order to link "talents of Vietnam shrimp industry" who have produced shrimp successfully for many years with the model of super-intensive, intensive, extensive and mangrove shrimp farming with scientists, universities, institutions, governmental agencies to share and find the solutions for sustainable, environment and social responsible shrimp development.
In Bac Lieu province, on August 28, 2017, The management board of project SUSV collaborate with Vietnam Fisheries Association, Bac Lieu Agriculture and Rural Development department, Directorate of Fisheries, International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS), Oxfam in Vietnam, WWF in Vietnam, Bac Lieu Agriculture Extension Center, GRASEA project to organize “VIET SHRIMP FORUM: SHARING SUCCESSFUL SHRIMP FARMING EXPERIENCES IN MEKONG DELTA”
There were more than 600 attendants who came from: Directorate of Fisheries, Vietnam Fisheries Association, representative from EU, department of Agriculture and rural development, fisheries sub-department, Agriculture Center and shrimp farmers from 8 provinces in Mekong delta, Research Institute for Aquaculture 2(RIA2), WWF, shrimp production inputs suppliers, processing companies….
In the forum, the farmers who have produced shrimp successful for years have shared their own experiences and the secrets which helped them to have a lot successful shrimp crops with two stage shrimp farming model, applying high advanced technology, indoor shrimp farming, rice-shrimp rotation production, mangrove shrimp farming...
Dr. Le Thanh Luu – ICAFIS director shared: to help shrimp industry reach to target of 10 billion $US, we need to change to the direction of producing high value products besides increasing volume. Producing high value products will also help shrimp industry develop in a sustainable way.
The forum attracted shrimp farmers to come to share experiences/technology, created linkages among shrimp farmers for mutual sharing, supporting for sustainable shrimp production.
The forum participants also accessed the high quality input sources for shrimp farming by visiting the area of exhibiting high quality products, advanced technologies for shrimp farming. The exhibition gave good opportunities for shrimp farmers to learn about the high quality products for their farms.
Mr. Tran Dinh Luan – Vice Director– Directorate of Fisheries shared “The forum is good, it brought a lot of useful information for both shrimp farmers and management agencies. The forum needs to be organized annually with more advanced shrimp farming technologies, so attendants can discuss, share more depth to widen knowledge, experiences among shrimp farmers to develop sustainably together.”
Thế Diễn - ICAFIS
