VnnNews – There is evidence showing that the problem in seafood exports really has its source at the roots – with the fish farmers.
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As such, the problem is that while farmers have to bear higher risks and more expenses, their profit level is much lower than that of seafood processors.
The noteworthy thing is that the survey result released by Can Tho University was based on figures collected mainly in 2007 and early 2008, when the tra fish price was higher than the production cost, which meant that farmers could make profit from farming. Meanwhile, since the end of the first quarter of 2008, fish farmers have been selling fish at below cost.
Since the beginning of 2009, the feed price has been increasing continuously, which has dealt a strong blow to tra farmers in the biggest aquaculture areas in
Recent surveys on tra farming in An Giang province, one of the biggest tra farming provinces, showed that 70-80 percent of tra farmers are incurring losses. An Giang province now has 2,854 households which have borrowed money to farm fish with the total borrowed capital of 1,500 billion dong. 152 households have overdue debts totalling 52 billion dong. Most tra farmers do not have any more assets to mortgage to get new loans.
According to the An Giang Aquaculture and Seafood Processing Association, to date, 25-30 percent of farming households have gone bankrupt, 40-50 percent of households have lost capital and owe money to banks. Many tra farmers in An Giang are ‘living in banks’ houses’ and ‘breeding fish in banks’ ponds’ – 90 percent of tra farmers are now debtors of banks.
“As fish farmers continue to lose money, they have left fish ponds idle and stopped production,” said Dr Mai Thi Anh Tuyet, Deputy Director of the An Giang Science and Technology Department.
In 2009, the total area of fish farming in Mekong Delta has decreased by 30 percent over 2008. In An Giang province, the farming area has decreased by 20 percent, which has made fish output decrease by 20,000 tonnes in comparison with the same period of last year to 180,000 tonnes.
By the end of June 2009, 2036 households had left fish ponds idle, which means 297 hectares, or 20 percent of the total farming area.
Tuyet has warned that as many fish farmers have given up farming, this will lead to a serious shortage of fish for processing for export in the last months of 2009. It is estimated that An Giang’s tra exports will reach 150,000 tonnes this year, or just 80 percent of that of 2008.
Tuyet stressed that the fish shortage is really more serious than the previous times, since tra farmers now do not have money and cannot borrow money from banks any more to resume production.
“This is really a bitter lesson for processing enterprises, whose production development strategies have not addressed the creation of sustainable material growing areas.
Seventeen seafood processing factories in An Giang province are now running at moderate levels. Thousands of workers have had to stay home from work because of the lack of production materials.
“The 100 processing factories in the region which have the total capacity of 2.5 million tonnes are running at just 50 percent of the designed capacity,” Tuyet said.
VietNamNet/TBKTVN
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