The largest eel barn in the Central region

(Baonghean.vn) - The low-lying countryside of Yen Thanh district (Nghe An) is the most famous eel farm in the Central region. This "specialty" has created jobs for the people here, providing them with an additional source of income besides rice.

Eels eliminate hunger and reduce poverty

Students, take the opportunity to go release eel traps.

No one knows when eel catching began, but in Yen Thanh it is popular in almost all villages, attracting many participants. In particular, recently eel has been promoted to a specialty, appearing on the menu of most restaurants and hotels, this profession has developed rapidly.

Mr. Quy, a fisherman from Long Thanh commune, confided: Now is the main season for catching eels. In a field, there are more than 10 fisherman, each with at least 200 - 300 eel tubes.

According to Mr. Quy, although there are so many traps, every night, everyone catches a lot of eels. He alone, with 400 traps, catches 10 - 15 kg each night. The price for traders is 70 thousand VND/kg, which is about 1 million VND.

“Thanks to this job, I was able to buy a motorbike, build a Thai-style house and send five children to school. Because of the income, many people have bought tools, and every afternoon they take their traps to the fields to catch eels. Now, every village has people catching eels. My village has more than 500 people, but more than 200 people catch eels. There are a lot of eels in Yen Thanh. Wherever there is water, there are eels, and they reproduce very quickly,” said Mr. Quy.

With a simple trap, each day, a Yen Thanh resident can catch 5 - 7kg of clean eel. Photo: Viet Phuong.

According to eel catchers in Yen Thanh, there are many ways to catch eels. The first is to drop traps, this method does not require capital but is hard and laborious. During the day, dig for worms, frogs, and chopped crabs to make bait to place in eel traps. In the afternoon, spend time inspecting locations to find places to drop traps. Traps can be released all year round, because eels come out of their holes at night to look for bait, and when they smell the fishy smell, they immediately hide in the traps. The second is to catch them with bare hands, this unique trick is only available to people in Long Thanh commune. They go to the fields or ponds, when they see an eel, they just need to put their hands down and somehow they will catch the eel and put it in their basket. However, if you want to catch a big eel and sell it for more money, the only way is to go fishing.

Mr. Binh, an angler, said: Early February and late July are the eel spawning seasons, when eels from the fields will move to shore to make holes to lay eggs and hatch. These are the two months when eel fishermen can earn the best income of the year. Eels are sold for about 70,000 VND/kg in a cage, but eels caught for sale are 100,000 VND/kg.

Many people become millionaires

Currently in Yen Thanh, almost every village has eel traders who “stay in the village” to buy and then import to agents to make a profit. These eel agents collect and then transport to big cities for consumption. It is on this “traveling” eel path that some people, quick to grasp the market, have opened frozen eel processing facilities to earn big profits.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet (born in 1980) - owner of an eel processing facility in Ru Dat hamlet, Long Thanh commune said: “At first, I just drove eels to collect and transport them to Vinh to import for restaurants, but I saw that the demand for consumption was high, and most restaurants had to hire people to do it, which was very hard. So I came up with a way to process clean eels into frozen products and then import them. I sold all the eels I made. At first, only my family did it, but later I had to hire many people to do it. Thanks to this job, I was able to build a 2-storey house and buy a truck to transport eels.”

Eels are collected after a night of fishing.

Currently, Ms. Nguyet's facility purchases and processes about 2 tons of finished eel every day to transport to big cities, earning hundreds of millions of dong each year and creating regular jobs for more than 20 workers with an income of over 3 million dong/person/month.

Currently, Long Thanh commune has more than 15 frozen eel processing facilities, meaning there are more than 15 eel billionaires. These facilities have also attracted hundreds of local workers.

Wild eels raised in Yen Thanh are delicious, famous for being clean, and much different from farmed eels. Photo: Viet Phuong.

A good sign for the Yen Thanh eel industry in general and eel processing facilities in Long Thanh commune in particular is that currently, there are many orders from some large agents in other provinces to collect frozen eels for export to markets in Thailand, Singapore, Laos, China...

Eel consumption is high, so many families in Yen Thanh have seized the opportunity to open eel farms for big profits, such as Mr. Trong's farm in Long Thanh commune, Mr. Phu's farm in Nam Thanh commune, Mr. Chung's farm in My Thanh commune... Each year, they earn hundreds of millions of dong.

Thanks to the eel profession, many farmers have escaped poverty, become rich and become billionaires, changing the face of many villages.

Ms. Pham Thi Phuc - an official of the Women's Union of Long Thanh Commune, Yen Thanh District said: Our commune is located in a low-lying area of ​​Yen Thanh District, where there is drought when it is sunny and flooding when it is rainy. People's income from rice is not much, so eel catching and processing has created regular jobs for dozens of local workers, mainly women. During the off-season, women work at eel processing facilities with a salary of 3 - 4 million VND/month. In recent years, the economy of households in the hamlet has developed evenly thanks to the eel processing profession.

>>> Unique eel basket making craft

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