The largest freshwater eel farm in Central Vietnam.

(Baonghean.vn) - The low-lying, flooded countryside of Yen Thanh district (Nghe An province) is the most famous eel-producing area in Central Vietnam. This "specialty" has created a livelihood for the local people, providing them with an additional source of income besides rice farming.

Eels help alleviate poverty.

Students took the opportunity to set eel traps.

No one knows exactly when eel fishing originated, but in Yen Thanh district, it's widespread throughout the villages, attracting many participants. Especially recently, with eels being elevated to the status of a delicacy and appearing on the menus of most restaurants and hotels, this profession has flourished.

Mr. Quy, a traditional eel trapper from Long Thanh commune, shared: "Currently, it's the peak season for catching eels. In one field, there are more than 10 eel trappers, each with at least 200-300 traps."

According to Mr. Quy, even though they set so many traps, everyone catches a lot of eels each night. He himself, with 400 traps, catches 10-15 kg each night. The wholesale price for eels sold to traders is 70,000 VND per kg, totaling around 1 million VND.

“Thanks to this profession, I was able to buy a motorbike, build a Thai-style house, and raise five children. Because of the income, many people have bought equipment, and every afternoon they carry their traps to the fields to catch eels. Now, every village has people catching eels. My village has over 500 inhabitants, but more than 200 people are eel catchers. There are a lot of eels in Yen Thanh; wherever there is water, there are eels, and they reproduce very quickly,” said Mr. Quy.

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

According to eel fishermen in Yen Thanh, there are several ways to catch eels. The first is using traps, which doesn't require much capital but is laborious and time-consuming. During the day, they dig up worms, frogs, and crabs to use as bait for the eel traps. In the afternoon, they spend time scouting locations to find places to set the traps. Traps can be used year-round because eels come out of their burrows at night to find food, and when they smell something fishy, ​​they immediately enter the traps. The second is catching them with bare hands, a unique technique only found in Long Thanh commune. They walk across fields or ponds, spot an eel, and simply reach down with both hands to grab it and put it in their basket. However, to catch larger eels that fetch more money, they use fishing rods.

According to Mr. Binh, an eel fisherman: "From early February to the end of July is the breeding season for eels. During this time, eels from the rice fields move to the banks 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 caught in traps sell for about 70,000 VND/kg, but eels caught by fishing fetch 100,000 VND/kg."

Many people become millionaires.

Currently in Yen Thanh, almost every village has eel traders "stationed" there to buy eels and then supply them to dealers for profit. These eel dealers collect the eels and then transport them to big cities for consumption. It is on this eel trading route that some quick-witted individuals, seizing market opportunities, have opened frozen eel processing facilities, reaping large profits.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet (born in 1980), the owner of an eel processing facility in Ru Dat hamlet, Long Thanh commune, said: “Initially, I was just a trader collecting eels and transporting them to Vinh to supply restaurants. But seeing the high demand, and the fact that most restaurants had to hire workers, which was very hard work, I came up with the idea of ​​processing clean eels into frozen products and then supplying them. I sell everything I produce. At first, only family members worked, but later I had to hire more people. Thanks to this business, I was able to build a two-story house and buy a truck to transport the eels.”

The eels were collected after a night of setting traps.

Currently, Ms. Nguyet's facility purchases and processes over 2 tons of finished eel products daily, shipping them to major cities. This generates hundreds of millions of dong in annual income and provides regular employment for over 20 workers, each earning over 3 million dong per month.

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

Wild eels caught in traps in Yen Thanh are delicious, famous for their cleanliness, and quite different from farmed eels. Photo: Viet Phuong.

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

Due to the high demand for eels, many families in Yen Thanh have seized the opportunity to open eel farms, generating substantial profits, such as the farms of Mr. Trong in Long Thanh commune, Mr. Phu in Nam Thanh commune, and Mr. Chung in My Thanh commune… Each year they earn hundreds of millions of dong.

It is thanks to eel farming that many farmers have escaped poverty, risen to wealth, and become millionaires, transforming the face of many rural villages.

Ms. Pham Thi Phuc, an official of the Women's Union in Long Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, said: "Our commune, located in the low-lying area of ​​Yen Thanh district, suffers from drought during the dry season and flooding during the rainy season. Income from rice cultivation is negligible, so the eel catching and processing industry has created regular employment for dozens of local workers, mainly women. During the off-season, women working at eel processing facilities earn 3-4 million VND per month. In recent years, the economy of households in the hamlet has developed uniformly thanks to the eel processing industry."

>>> The unique craft of making eel traps

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