Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Trinh Dinh Dung had a recent working session with provincial leaders of Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Soc Trang, Kien Giang and Tra Vinh on plans and strategies to foster the development of the shrimp sector, towards building a trademark for Vietnamese shrimp.
It is also necessary that coastal localities, especially those specialising in farming shrimp, enhance cooperation in producing brackish water shrimp in order to improve product quality.
At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has designed a plan to monitor the production chain of shrimp for export, aiming to develop shrimp farms to the standards of the World Organisation for Animal Health and countries importing the product.
The People’s Committees of major shrimp producing localities have been asked to make plans and allocate capital for the application of measures to prevent shrimp diseases, to create low-risk areas and shrimp farms with production chain compliant safety requirements.
It is set that until the end of 2017, at least 10% of breeding shrimp farms producing over 1 billion post-larval shrimps each year will be recognised as safe farms.
The plan also sets a goal of at least one farm recognised to have a production chain meeting OIE safety standards. The regulations of OIE and importing countries will also be popularised among enterprises, along with guidelines to reach the standards.
Shrimp breeding is not only considered a key export product in recent years, but also has brought higher income for farmers and created many jobs. Therefore, focusing on productivity and quality to enhance value for this sector is one of the pressing needs in the process of restructuring the fisheries sector.
In 2016 Vietnam’s shrimp exports revenue forecast to reach US$3.1 billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 4%.