Asia Times: Mekong Delta fish farmers reel in cash


	March 19, 2002	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Mekong Delta fish farmers reel in cash

HANOI - Many farmers in the Mekong Delta have started investing more of their time and money into side businesses raising freshwater basa catfish to supplement their incomes during a difficult time for rural produce.

Thanks to successful efforts to expand export outlets for Vietnam's basa catfish, local traders now pay farmers between VND10,000 and 10,700 (66-71 US cents) for one kilogram of basa fish, double last year's prices.

With more than 3,300 basa cages, farmers in An Giang province hope to market 48,000 tonnes this year.

An Giang's neighboring province of Can Tho is also striving to supply 20,000 tonnes of basa catfish to local processing establishments this year. The province hopes to raise the annual figure to 80,000 tonnes in the next few years.

Fishery promotion clubs in the delta have encouraged fish farmers to apply environmentally friendly fish-raising methods to protect the ecology of the region and improve the quality of fish for higher competitiveness.

Fish-processing activities in the region continue to develop, with An Giang province's Agrifish stock company recently spending US$2 million to upgrade its existing processing facilities and build one more processing factory in Chau Doc township.

The company shipped its products, including canned and baked basa fish, to European, Asian and American markets in the first two months of this year, earning hundreds of thousands of US dollars.

Thanks to its intensive investment efforts, Agrifish has raised its tra and basa catfish processing capacity to 3,000 tonnes a year.

Can Tho's fish-processing establishment exported more than 500 tonnes of catfish a month on average to the US, European and Asian markets in recent months.

(Asia Pulse/VNA)