(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to the statistics of Directorate of Fisheries, the Mekong Delta has a brackish water shrimp farming area of over 620,000 hectares (accounting for over 91% of the country's shrimp farming area); the annual harvested shrimp output is about 484,000 MT (accounting for 81% of the national shrimp output).
Accordingly, striving to 2020, the total area of brackish shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta will be 650,000 hectares. Of which, tiger shrimp will be 560,000 hectares; White leg shrimp will hit 90,000 hectares. Total production of brackish shrimp culture in the whole region will be estimated at 700,000 - 825,000 MT, the export value will achieve at US$4 billion.
In fact, in recent years, Vietnam's seafood industry has made great progress, becoming the world's third largest export country. Typically in 2018, the export turnover reached US $ 9 billion, accounting for 4% of the total export turnover of the whole country, ranked 6th among the main export categories of Vietnam. In particular, brackish water shrimp export turnover has reached over US$3.5 billion annually, playing an important role in overall growth of the country and contributing to solving labor and employment issues, stabilizing political and social security.
Up to now, Bac Lieu province has promoted economic restructuring and production transformation, the potential strengths of each industry and region. This method has initially been effective, making an important contribution to maintaining the growth rate of the local economy.
Particularly in Bac Lieu province, there were about 140,000 hectares of aquaculture in 2018. Aquaculture production reached over 227,000 MT, worth of VND 11,000 billion, contributing to raising the value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production in the province and accounting for about 42% of the province's GRDP value.
It is estimated that in 2019, the total production of aquaculture and fishing in Bac Lieu province will reach 365,000 MT. Thus, the province's agriculture sector will grow by 5.1%, contributing to the overall economic growth of the province in 2019 to 10.61%.
Mr. Luu Hoang Ly, Director of Bac Lieu Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that Bac Lieu is currently actively investing in building infrastructure of high-tech agriculture zone to develop Bac Lieu shrimp. This is an important premise, step by step building Bac Lieu to become a shrimp industry center of the country according to the Prime Minister's conclusions.
Mr. Duong Thanh Trung, Chairman of Bac Lieu People's Committee, said that in the coming time, Bac Lieu province will focus on building high-tech application farming areas as planned. To strive for the target that by 2020, there will be 4 or more high-tech aquaculture zones, including 3 areas for aquaculture and 1 area for producing aquatic breeds.
By 2025, the locality will have 10 or more high-tech aquaculture zones (9 aquaculture areas and 1 aquaculture seed production area), contributing to bringing the seafood export turnover of Bac Lieu province by 2020 to US$750 million and by 2025 to reach US$1 billion.