Oil prices drop, Nghe An fishermen prepare to go back to sea

After receiving the informationoil price dropFrom the afternoon of March 21, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan, a fisherman in Yen Thinh hamlet, Dien Ngoc commune, Dien Chau district, decided to go back to sea after nearly a month of being on shore. On March 22, Mr. Tuan mobilized crew members to clean the boat, prepare fuel, ice, food to continue working...

Nghe An fishing boats return to sea after a long suspension due to high fuel prices. Photo: QA

Mr. Tuan shared: My ship has been out of action since the end of February, this is the longest time we have stopped going to sea in decades. We stay at home, do other work, and listen and monitor the daily price of gasoline and oil to wait for the day we can go to sea again. On March 21, we heard that the price of oil has decreased by more than 1,600 VND/liter. Although the decrease is not as expected, this is still a good sign after the recent period of continuous price increases...".

According to Mr. Tuan's calculations, each trip his ship consumes from 700 to 800 liters of oil, so the reduction of 1,600 VND/liter of oil helps him save more than 1 million VND/trip. He spends this amount of money on the crew members to have more income during the epidemic season. For ships far from shore, traveling for a long time, consuming from 3,000 to 4,000 liters of oil, the reduction in oil prices has also helped them save from 5 to 7 million VND at this time.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Vice Chairman of People's CommitteeDien Ngoc communesaid: “The whole commune has more than 200 boats, including 100 large-capacity boats. As of March 24, about 50% of the number of boats have returned to sea, partly because oil prices have decreased slightly, partly because the time at home is too long, fishermen have no income so they are forced to go to sea with the hope of a bumper seafood harvest, making up for the still high oil prices...”.

Although returning to sea, the amount of seafood caught at this time is very low. Photo: QA

Not only in Dien Chau district but also in other localities such as Quynh Luu district, Hoang Mai town, Cua Lo town... fishermen's boats have also started to go out to sea again. Ms. Vu Thi Bich Hang - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Quynh Luu district said: The whole Quynh Luu district has about 1,000 boats, including about 700 offshore fishing boats of fishermen from Quynh Long, Quynh Nghia, Tien Thuy, Son Hai communes... According to a preliminary survey, by March 24, nearly 70% of the boats in the district had gone out to sea, the rest were still on shore waiting to see what happened...".

In fact, according to the survey of the reporter, although they have returned to sea, the quantity is not much. Besides, according to the fishermen, the source of seafood in the first months of the year is not high at this time, in which, the fishing boats mainly catch low-value seafood, only a few boats catch needlefish, so the current sea trips have not achieved the expected income, many boats are still suffering losses... Besides, although the price of oil has decreased, it is still at 23,600 VND/liter, still very high in nearly 10 years. Therefore, people in coastal areas are still worried about fuel.

Currently, atNghe AnThere are more than 3,400 ships, of which more than 1,000 are large-capacity, fishing offshore. With a workforce of nearly 20,000 marine workers, this is considered one of the key economic sectors in the area. The fact that fishermen are returning to sea is a fairly positive sign, both generating income and ensuring the supply of seafood in the market, especially when the tourist season is approaching. For fishermen, they hope to have support policies and fuel subsidies to reduce the cost of each trip, while creating conditions for supporting loans, extending the payment period of interest and debts so that they can stay at sea and overcome this difficult period.

Traders buy seafood for people after each fishing trip. Photo: Quang An

On March 21, the Ministry of Industry and Trade - Ministry of Finance adjusted retail prices of goods.gasoline, applied from 3:00 p.m. the same day. Accordingly, E5RON92 gasoline will decrease by 655 VND/liter; RON95 gasoline will decrease by 632 VND/liter. After adjustment, E5RON92 gasoline will be sold at 28,330 VND/liter; RON95 is 29,192 VND/liter.

Similarly, oil prices also decreased in this adjustment period. Specifically, diesel decreased by VND1,630/liter, kerosene decreased by VND1,670/liter, and fuel oil decreased by VND560/kg. After adjustment, diesel is priced at VND23,630/liter, kerosene at VND22,240/liter, and fuel oil at VND20,420/kg. This is the first time gasoline prices have decreased after 7 consecutive increases.