Nghe An farmers earn big profits from hatching and selling eel seeds

After working in many jobs to make a living, including being exported to England as a laborer, when he had little capital in hand, Mr. Luong decided to return home to start a business. He chose the commercial eel farming model to start his business.

“Eel is a famous specialty of Yen Thanh. When talking about eel from Nghe An, people immediately think of Yen Thanh. Therefore, I chose eel to develop my livelihood,” said Mr. Luong. He used all his savings and borrowed a total of 6 billion VND to open an eel farm.

Having been attached to the fields, having set traps to catch eels and fished for eels since he was a child, Mr. Luong understands very well the characteristics of eels; at the same time, to equip himself with knowledge and techniques for commercial eel farming, he is not afraid to "learn from teachers", learn from predecessors in the village and commune; and learn about mud-free eel farming models in the province.

He also spent money to go to the South, applying to work for large eel farms to learn more. Once he had a basic understanding of the “ways and steps” of eel farming, he spent 300 million VND to receive technical transfer from a famous farm and then bought eel fry from the South to raise.

However, buying eel seeds from the South to raise is not only risky due to the difference in environment and temperature, but also requires long-distance transportation and is expensive. Therefore, Mr. Luong had a bold idea of ​​hatching eel eggs into juveniles, saving on raising costs and providing eel seeds to the people.

The first batch, he imported hundreds of thousands of eel eggs using the method he learned in the South: put the eggs in buckets and basins, and aerate them with oxygen to hatch the eels. However, it was a complete failure, the eggs spoiled and the eels died.

“Necessity is the mother of invention”, he struggled to find the cause and think of a solution. After many times, he concluded that the cause of loss when hatching eel eggs was due to environmental factors and water environment, therefore, first of all, it was necessary to solve these two problems well.

He tinkered with the eel egg incubator. After dozens of tests and adjustments, the eel egg incubator was born. With a multi-chamber design, combined with the principle of circulating water to create oxygen, the incubator helps the eggs to always move and not stick together.

When the eggs hatch, the baby eels will be separated through a slot to a separate chamber, while the unhatched eggs will be kept for further incubation. In addition, the machine has a heating system, which solves the temperature problem in winter, helping the eels not to be "cold shocked" when they hatch. With the eel incubator, the hatching rate of eel eggs reaches 80%.

To reduce costs, he also researched ways to collect eel eggs instead of importing eggs like before. Accordingly, he paired female and male eels together, increasing the possibility of fertilizing the eggs.

“In the near future, I am looking for a way to artificially inseminate eels. If successful, it will reduce the cost of eel seeds, helping eel farmers earn higher profits,” he shared.

Not stopping there, Mr. Luong boldly crossbred southern parent eels with native freshwater eels, both increasing productivity and increasing the adaptability of young eels to the environment, ensuring that the eel meat is firmer, more delicious.

Currently, each year, the farm exports 200,000-300,000 fry, earning about 800 million VND, with a net profit of about 400 million VND. At the same time, it creates stable jobs for many local workers, while providing quality eel fry at reasonable prices to local people.