Finding directions for shrimp seed production

As the world's leading shrimp exporter, shrimp brought in 4.1 billion USD for Vietnam in 2014 (accounting for nearly 52% of seafood export value). However, each year we can only produce 3,000 pairs of parent tiger shrimp (meeting 10% of demand), while all parent white-leg shrimp must be imported.

10 million USD to import shrimp seeds

According to the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), in 2014, Vietnam imported about 248,000 white-leg shrimp broodstock. From this broodstock source, businesses produce commercial shrimp broodstock, about more than 100 billion shrimp broodstock each year to supply to shrimp farmers.

Viet - Australia Company Limited invests in a shrimp breeding farm in Ninh Phuoc district (Ninh Thuan).

Because we cannot produce parent shrimp, Vietnam has to spend 10 million USD per year to import from: the US, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia (on average each parent shrimp costs 40 - 50 USD). However, each pair of parent shrimp can only be produced for 3 - 4 months, then must be replaced, so we always have to depend on imported shrimp.

According to Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy Director General, Directorate of Fisheries, "Due to dependence on imports, we face many disadvantages such as: Limited supply, often not enough to meet production needs; High prices but quality is not guaranteed".

According to Mr. Phan Tuan Cu, Owner of Tuan Cu Private Enterprise (Binh Thuan Shrimp Breed Association): "Because we depend on imported sources, the quality is not guaranteed, we cannot choose the breed, we use whatever type people send. Sometimes the shrimp are very big, sometimes they are very small, there are batches of shrimp that grow very quickly, but unfortunately there are also batches of shrimp that grow slowly, so people have to suffer". Also according to Mr. Tuan, because the quality of shrimp breed is not guaranteed, we have recently eliminated two suppliers of parent shrimp breed.

“We have enough potential to research and produce parent shrimp, but the coordination mechanism with research institutes is still complicated. The State needs to have preferential policies for businesses on taxes, land... then many businesses will be willing to spend money to research parent shrimp,” said Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh, Director of Nam Mien Trung Seafood Investment Company Limited.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), on average, Vietnam needs 130 billion commercial shrimp seeds each year for aquaculture, including 100 billion white-leg shrimp and 30 billion black tiger shrimp. In recent years, Vietnam has conducted many research projects to create parent shrimp seeds to supply the market, but so far, no unit has officially announced the production of parent shrimp seeds. "We are also researching, planning to put it into testing in 2015, and by 2016 we can supply parent shrimp seeds," said Mr. Nguyen Cong Can, Deputy General Director of Viet Uc Group, a unit specializing in providing shrimp seeds.

Towards proactive shrimp seed sources

To proactively source white-leg shrimp broodstock, “The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed the Aquaculture Research Institute 1 and 2 to conduct research in two phases. The immediate phase is to quickly produce quality broodstock to replace imported sources. It is expected that broodstock will be put into production in 2016. The second phase, a long-term project, aims to have high-quality broodstock to supply the market in 2020,” said Mr. Pham Anh Tuan.

According to Dr. Nguyen Huu Ninh, Deputy Director of the Aquaculture Research Institute I: "We have imported 5 different shrimp stocks, including shrimp stocks of natural origin for research; initially selected the first generation (G1)".

In addition, “Vietnamese-Australian enterprises are also researching parent shrimp, they have obtained the third generation (G3). It is expected that in 2015, parent shrimp will be available. However, this will not be easy,” said Mr. Ninh.

Confirming this information, Mr. Nguyen Cong Can, Deputy General Director of Viet-Uc Group said: “We imported broodstock shrimp production technology from Australia, which has more than 10 years of research experience. This year, we have not yet launched broodstock shrimp on the market, but will conduct trial production and market evaluation. It is expected that in 2016, we will start producing broodstock shrimp.”

However, according to Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries, it is very difficult to obtain high-quality parent shrimp, because we still research by importing parent shrimp from different countries, crossbreeding and selecting through many generations. Therefore, it is very difficult to create original shrimp.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Robins, representative of CP Group (Thailand) said: "The parent shrimp breed exported to Vietnam is only for the production of commercial shrimp breeds, it cannot be used for research on parent shrimp production, because if not careful, it will lead to inbreeding, causing degeneration of the following generations."

According to News