Raising new fish breeds: Uncertain output

(Baonghean) -In recent years, the movement of raising freshwater and brackish water fish in the province has been growing, with many new high-quality fish breeds such as sea bass, goby, square-head perch, red tilapia, spotted catfish... However, the output for these fish is facing many difficulties, causing farmers to worry...

Every morning for Mr. Luu Van Ban and other sea bass farmers in Trung Hau village, Dien Van commune (Dien Chau), the job is to cut fresh sea fish into small pieces to feed the sea bass. Sea bass is a valuable brackish water aquatic species, their food is fresh sea fish, so the farmers have to work very hard. Raising 3,000 sea bass, each weighing about 500 grams, Mr. Ban said that every day they eat about 40kg of sea fish, priced at about 400,000 VND. He uses scissors to cut fresh mackerel, mullet, and herring into small pieces to feed them, twice a day, morning and afternoon. "There are only two months left until harvest, the estimated output is nearly 2 tons. If last year, the profit would be about tens of millions. The only worry is that this year, he doesn't know where to sell it" - Mr. Ban worried. He was even more worried when two fish suddenly died and floated up. He was so heartbroken that he buried them, "so he lost 200,000 VND".

Mr. Luu Van Ban, Dien Van commune (Dien Chau) is feeding sea bass.

According to Mr. Ban, raising sea bass is due to the fact that last year the Nghe An Aquaculture Department invested in fish fry for 6 households here, the total source of fry is about 100 million VND, the households tried to raise fish and found it effective, this year 20 households in Trung Hau village bought fish fry in Quynh Lien - Hoang Mai to raise. Raising fish is also worrying because this is a new species, the technique is also new, the water source depends on Lach Van canal. Many households do not dare to borrow money from banks to invest in fish farming because they are afraid that the fish will be infected with diseases or the price will drop, causing losses and not being able to pay the debt. Mr. Luu Van Vien - a sea bass farmer in Trung Hau village said: Before, although shrimp farming had big losses, there were still people coming to the pond to buy. But now the fish have grown to 800 grams/fish but no one has come to buy for them. My family only raises 1,000 fish, if I have to go to the market to sell 3kg, 5kg each day, it will be very difficult.

Mr. Vu Dung, Hoang Truyen, Luu Phuoc (same village) are also worried: The whole village has about 20 households raising fish, the fish output will reach about 3 tons. This is a high-priced fish, currently selling for 100,000 VND/kg. Currently, no one has been able to contact restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, it is only sold at Dien Van and Dien Bich markets...

In hamlet 3 - Hung Chinh (Vinh City), Mr. Nguyen Van Hanh's family was also terrified when remembering the two special fish farming seasons. His family has 6 ponds rented from the commune to set up a farm to raise pigs and various types of fish. The fish output in his pond is often about ten tons of fish including carp, silver carp, bighead carp, and silver carp... In 2012, he set aside a pond to raise sea bass. But traders only came to buy a dozen kilos at a time, because it was difficult to sell, so it took a long time to sell all. Meanwhile, each time pulling the net, they had to pull a few quintals to pay for the net (200,000 VND/net).

The fish grew bigger and bigger, the food became more expensive. During the rainy season, sea fish became more expensive. He remembered the year 2009 when he raised black snakehead fish. This was a new breed, he had to order it from the South and ship it by air. Black snakehead fish also eat sea fish, he had to invest millions of dong every day for the fish. When the fish grew to 1kg/fish, he still couldn't find a buyer, traders only bought a few dozen fish each day to sell retail, while the fish in the pond had reached 5 tons. Then the snakehead fish grew to 1.5kg/fish, it was even harder to sell, he had to let the fish go through the winter. In the winter, the fish got sick, floating all over the pond. He had to scoop the fish out in tears and salt them in barrels to feed the pigs. All his efforts and capital were gone. "This year I won't raise sea bass anymore because it's hard to sell, but I still regret it because if there was a favorable output, this would be a food source with high nutritional value," said Mr. Hanh.

Meanwhile, Mr. Duong Xuan Thuan - Phong Phu - Hung Hoa Cooperative (Vinh City) raises spotted catfish, a type of catfish with high economic value. He sold it for 200,000 VND/kg, but because of the picky buyers, Mr. Thuan has stopped raising it. When raising catfish, Mr. Thuan has to change the water regularly, ensure the pond is clean, and raise it with silver carp to clean the environment. Now, he has returned to traditional fish farming and is researching the market to see if he can raise specialty fish.

Currently, traditional freshwater fish species are mainly silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, common carp, tilapia, etc. Some localities such as Cua Lo, Nghi Hop (Nghi Loc), Dien Chau, Hung Nguyen, Do Luong, Nam Dan, etc. are developing the farming of some new species such as black snakehead fish, square-head perch, red tilapia, eel, soft-shell turtle, crab, eel, etc. The farming of these species has received technical attention from the Department of Aquaculture, the Seed Center, and Nghe An Aquatic Seed Joint Stock Company. Some households have invested in seeds when making the model. Households have also diligently learned and cared for them, so most of the farming species follow the correct process, achieving results in quality and quantity.

However, most of the products have to be self-sufficient, there is no information and no one to buy the products. Therefore, when the products in the pond reach about 3 - 5 tons, farmers are at risk of heavy losses due to long-term farming, slow sales or falling prices. New farming products have high prices, farmers have not yet been able to stick to the market. There is no connection between the pond and restaurants, purchasing sources. Currently, people's fish farming is mainly "picking and releasing", while one harvest is also expensive, even pulling the net depends on traders, many people cannot pull the net themselves and do not have enough manpower and means.

Currently, the output of freshwater fish has reached over 33,000 tons/year, in mountainous and midland areas, freshwater fish resources have also been developed, so the basic demand has been met for the whole province, so the price of traditional fish is decreasing, the current average price sold at the pond is 30,000 VND/kg of all types. Therefore, introducing new fish breeds with high economic value into farming is a meaningful work to supplement the market with diverse species. Therefore, fish farmers in localities need to establish groups, teams, and cooperatives to link up, support each other, and assign each other to find markets and outputs for products. In addition, local authorities and specialized agencies need to support farmers with market information, contacting farmers' contacts so that people can have the best choice.

Chau Lan