Affirming the spearhead of the fisheries economy

(Baonghean) - With a long coastline, two estuaries, a strong fishing force and means, a system of lakes and concentrated shrimp farms... Quynh Luu Aquaculture has affirmed itself as a key economic sector. That potential advantage becomes a new attraction to attract investors, creating premises and conditions for the local aquaculture industry to develop in the new period.

Efforts to go offshore

Offshore fishing boats anchored at Lach Quen port

After the administrative division to establish Hoang Mai Town, Quynh Luu District has a 19.5 km long coastline with 2 estuaries (Lach Quen and Lach Thoi) and 9 coastal communes. These are "elite" localities, pioneers in building new ones and increasing the capacity of offshore fishing boats. Implementing the Resolution of the 26th District Party Congress, term 2010 - 2015, and concretizing it with 5 programs, including program 2: "Intensive investment to have a production value of over 70 million VND/ha of cultivation; promoting advantages to strongly develop the coastal economy", has really created new momentum and development for the fisheries economy.

Accordingly, investment activities to increase the capacity of boats and boats, closely combining fishing with fishing logistics services are focused on by localities. The structure of the fleet has developed in the direction of gradually reducing small-capacity boats and gradually increasing the type of large-capacity boats. This is clearly seen through the number of newly built boats in the past few years, in 2014 the whole district built 95 new boats, bringing the total number of boats in the area to 1,272, of which 622 boats have a capacity of 90CV or more. The total engine capacity is 250,020 CV, the average capacity is 208 CV. The main fishing occupations of Quynh Luu fishermen include hooking, seining, trapping, trapping, netting, pulling...

In addition to building new boats and increasing engine capacity to reach further fishing grounds, ship owners are also interested in installing machinery and auxiliary equipment such as transducers and marine positioning devices. With the modern features of these devices, boats can accurately determine fish production, areas, and fishing coordinates to decide on netting, so the number of nets on a trip minimizes the impact on marine aquatic resources, increasing efficiency and output.

Mr. Ho Ba Son, Quynh Nghia commune, has a boat with a capacity of over 1,000 CV, fully equipped with fishing support equipment, excitedly said: "Now, not only do we have large capacity boats to go further offshore to fishing grounds, but we also have fish detection support equipment, so almost all sea trips can maintain effective fishing output. Therefore, we strive to cooperate in the form of inter-family cooperation, contributing capital to build large, high-capacity boats and installing support equipment to make fishing more economically efficient." Currently, the whole district has installed 47 horizontal detectors, 1 radar, 329 long-range communication devices for offshore fishing, 100% of offshore fishing boats have vertical detectors and walkie-talkies for communication between boats.

To confidently go offshore to catch seafood, Quynh Luu fishermen also established cooperative groups, models combining fishing and purse seine, upgrading the model of logistics service boats combined with exploitation groups. In 2014, Quynh Luu newly established 27 cooperative groups at sea, bringing the total number of cooperative groups at sea to 100. The infrastructure system serving fishing logistics has also been invested in accordingly. Facilities for repairing and building new boats to increase capacity, infrastructure for anchorage areas, storm shelters, fishing ports have been gradually invested and upgraded such as: Lach Quen port upgraded to accommodate 500 ships, Lach Thoi port to accommodate 300 ships with capacity of 200 CV or more. Thanks to the synchronous investment, the output of exploited seafood is stable at over 40,000 tons (in 2014 it reached 43,500 tons), reaching a value of over 970 billion VND.

Orientation of breeding service center

Although in the 2010-2015 term, the Quynh Luu Party Committee did not issue a specific resolution on the development of the fisheries economy, the previous term's orientation was to become a spearhead economy based on favorable conditions and development trends, so localities and fishermen have promoted it accordingly and there are businesses investing in the field of seed production. Visit the project to build a white-leg shrimp seed farm of Viet Uc Company in Quynh Minh commune. On an area of ​​4 hectares, this enterprise has synchronously deployed items from seawater settling tanks, to parent shrimp farming areas, nursery tanks, larval preparation areas, algae culture rooms... With an investment scale of nearly 40 billion VND, the Viet Uc Nghe An shrimp seed farm when put into operation will produce about 3 billion shrimp seeds/year, this is the largest shrimp seed farm in the Northern region.

Mr. Vo Van Xuan, CEO of Viet Uc Nghe An Company said: “Before implementing the project here, we have thoroughly surveyed the natural conditions, environment, and seed demand and found that Quynh Luu has enough conditions to become the center of shrimp seed production in the North. When our unit goes into operation, it will aim to provide all shrimp seeds for the North with disease-free quality, which will actively contribute to improving productivity, output, and quality of commercial shrimp for aquaculture and seafood farming activities”.

Industrial shrimp farming pond in Quynh Bang commune (Quynh Luu).

At the same time, in coastal communes, owners of shrimp ponds and small and medium-sized hatcheries are also actively applying scientific and technical advances to develop aquatic seed production. In 2014, the farms produced 231 million shrimp seeds, reaching 100% of the plan, including 130 million white-leg shrimp and 101 million black tiger shrimp. In addition to shrimp seed production, households also produce a number of other specialty breeds such as 3 million crab seeds and 15 million clam seeds to supply to farmers in and outside the district... Thus, it can be seen that the dynamism in taking advantage of coastal areas is making Quynh Luu not only a locality for intensive industrial shrimp farming with a large concentrated area but also a center for aquatic seed for the northern provinces.

Up to now, the average annual growth rate of aquaculture output in Quynh Luu has reached 15%. Of the total aquaculture area in the area of ​​2,666 hectares, the area for shrimp farming is 800 hectares, clam farming is 105 hectares, the remaining area is freshwater fish farming is 1,761 hectares, with a stable output of over 9,700 tons, of which shrimp output is over 2,300 tons; clams are 3,030 tons; creating an economic value of over 332 billion VND.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dinh, Head of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: Based on the results achieved in the fisheries economy in the recent period, important premises are being created for Quynh Luu to continue to orient the comprehensive development of fisheries economy on 3 main points: exploitation, aquaculture and seed production. On that basis, the district also focuses on prioritizing infrastructure investment such as upgrading the estuary system, building a system to supply seawater directly to industrial shrimp farming areas and fishery logistics services, linking exploitation with processing, ensuring stable output for fishermen.

Huu Nghia