Ca Mau: Promote the strengths of organic shrimp

Black tiger shrimp products are always favored in the world, especially Vietnam has some large and stable importers such as China, Japan, USA, Australia, Dubai and Singapore ... for decades. Besides, eco-certification systems associated with mangroves such as ASC, Naturland, Bio Suisse, Selva Shrimp are preferred and have export prices that are 20-30% higher than conventional shrimp.Currently, the area of shrimp-mangrove in the Mekong Delta is about 200,000 ha, accounting for largest area compared to other types of farming  such as improved extensive, shrimp-rice, semi-intensive and intensive. In Ca Mau, there are currently about 82,000 ha, of which mangrove area is 42,500 ha and aquaculture area accounts 39,500 ha). This area concentrated in some districts (Ngoc Hien district: 22,875 ha, Nam Can: 7,625 ha, Phu Tan and Dam Doi: 4,000-5,000 ha; Bac Lieu province has an area outside of protection dyke of 3,147 ha, of which 3,379 ha are inside dyke area. The water surface area for shrimp farming is 6,526 ha (the area outside the protection dyke is 3,147 ha, that of located inside dyke is 3,379 ha).

Mr. Le Van Su, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Ca Mau province said: “The proportion of Ca Mau's agriculture sector accounted for about 30% of the whole country. In particular, the shrimp industry played an important role for the locality. Shrimp culture in Ca Mau is very diverse, with many types of shrimp farming such as shrimp monoculture, shrimp-rice rotation, shrimp farming intercropped in mangrove ...

Accordingly, in recent years, the province has paid attention to rise shrimp - mangrove that achieved international certified quality for 19,000 hectares with more than 4,200 households. Striving to 2020, Camau will build certification for all  the area of shrimp - mangrove in  locality to 30,000 ha.

Tiger shrimp products farming in mangroves with international certifications are increasingly popular in the market in the trend of increasing demand for organic farming products.

Ngoc Hien district (Ca Mau) needs to build an exclusive brand of organic shrimp products in the wetlands so that farmers can feel secure about the brand, consumers can identify the origin of organic commercial shrimp to buy.

In the first 9 months of 2109, the shrimp export turnover of Ca Mau  reached US$655 million, reaching 56% of the plan; shrimp processing output reached 108,915 MT, equaling 75.7% of the plan, up 2.1% over the same period in 2018. Particularly,  shrimp export to China in September increased by 75.9% and rose by 23.6% in the first 9 months of 2019.