Nghe An: Returning to avoid the monsoon, fishermen bring along many valuable seafood

Lach Quen fishing port is bustling on the morning of November 30. Photo: Xuan Hoang

On the morning of November 30, at the fishing ports of the districtQuynh Luuand Hoang Mai town is bustling with seafood trading and transportation. Although the output is not large, some valuable seafood items are purchased by traders at quite high prices to freeze and sell during Tet.

Fisherman Ho Huu Hai in Tien Thuy commune, Quynh Luu district, just finished unloading seafood from the ship to Lach Quen fishing port area, said that this fishing trip will last 5 days and then have to return to port, because there is going to be a strong monsoon, causing heavy rain and high waves. However, fortunately, his fishing boat caught nearly 800 kg of squid, of which 50 kg was dried squid, the rest was well-preserved, high-quality fresh squid and nearly 1 ton of other fish.

Needlefish are purchased by traders right at the fishing port. Photo: Xuan Hoang

"Dried squid costs 1.3 million VND/kg, fresh squid costs 110,000 VND/kg, so the squid alone costs 125 million VND, along with 1 ton of fish sold for about 30 million VND, so this trip earned nearly 160 million VND. If there is no monsoon, fishing for another 3-4 days will be profitable."

According to the reporter's notes,tradersbought quite a lot of seafood, the most of which was needlefish with the price ranging from 70,000 - 100,000 VND/kg. Ms. Hue, a trader, said that this morning she bought 5 tons of needlefish from many ships (each ship had 200-500 kg of needlefish). The same goes for squid, each ship only had about 10 trays, so they had to buy and gather at the port, then take a car to transport to the freezer, store the goods for gradual sale, or serve food during Tet.

Currently, the price of hairtail fish ranges from 70,000 - 100,000 VND/kg, fresh squid costs 120,000 VND/kg. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Dong - managerLach Quen fishing port, due to the monsoon, Quynh Luu fishermen's boats have been returning to port to avoid the wind for the past 3 days, with about 20 boats arriving every day. Because fishermen are fishing for a short period of time, the seafood output is not as much as in other seasons. This is a disadvantage for fishermen, due to high oil prices. However, there are valuable, good quality seafood products, so traders buy them at high prices.

Traders purchase and transport seafood to the freezer. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Like Quynh Luu fishermen, fishermen in the localities of Hoang Mai town also have to return to shore to avoid the monsoon. Mr. Phan Van Hai - Chairman of the Quynh Lap Commune Fisheries Association said that to ensure the safety of boats and fishermen, every time there is a monsoon, people return to anchor their boats to avoid wind and waves. Nowadays, communication equipment on fishing boats has been fully installed and is increasingly modernized, so the work of monitoring the weather is updated hourly, so when the weather is unstable, people proactively take shelter safely.