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

After receiving the informationoil prices fallFrom 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, and 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 stayed at home, doing other work, and listening and monitoring the daily price of gasoline and oil, waiting for the day we could go back to sea. On March 21, we heard that the price of oil had dropped by more than 1,600 VND/liter. Although the decrease was not as expected, this was still a positive sign after a period of continuous price increases recently…”.

According to Mr. Tuan's calculations, each trip his ship consumes from 700 - 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 earn more money during the epidemic season. For ships far from shore, traveling for a long time, consuming from 3,000 - 4,000 liters of oil, the reduction of oil prices has also helped them save from 5 - 7 million VND at this time.

Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Vice Chairman of the 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 slightly decreased, and 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, to compensate for the still high oil prices...".

Although the sea is back open, 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 district of Quynh Luu 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 hear the situation...".

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 seafood source 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 yet 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 creating 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 oil decreased by VND1,630/liter, kerosene decreased by VND1,670/liter, and fuel oil decreased by VND560/kg. After adjustment, diesel oil is priced at VND23,630/liter, kerosene at VND22,240/liter, and fuel oil at VND20,420/kg. This is the first time the price of gasoline has decreased after 7 consecutive increases.