Vĩnh Tuy commune of Gò Quao district, Kiên Giang province is busy getting the harvest of giant river prawn in. Men are rushing to catch shrimps and bring them to a place near the canal bank while women are classifying shrimps into plastic tanks equipped with oxygen bubbling systems.
The shrimp pond owner has 40-50 workers harvest shrimps so that the harvest is completed in a short time and shrimp are alive and sold at high prices.
The pond is stirred by a machine and oxygen is withdrawn from the pond, forcing giant river shrimp to come up with their heads on the surface water and drift to the sides of the pond. Then workers can catch shrimp easily.
Shrimps are transported and gathered in a place, then they are cleaned and classified. Big size giant river prawns are sold to traders and small size ones are stocked back to the pond for further culture.
Farmer Võ Văn Trinh in Vĩnh Tuy commune said that local people have shifted to the intercropping of giant river prawn with white leg shrimp and rice and saw economic efficiency. “Local farmers had specialized in rearing black tiger shrimps with extremely low profit before white leg shrimp. After that they started to rear white leg shrimp with giant river prawn and earned higher profit. Thus they totally shifted to this farming model”, said Trinh.
Local farmers carries out 2-3 crops of giant river prawn in Vĩnh Tuy every year, with post larvae being reared in raceways within two months and a half before being commercially cultured for another 3.5 months. White leg shrimp are stocked about 15 days before giant river prawns are brought out of raceways so that these two species grow together in the same pond.
Shrimps size 14-40 pcs/kg are sold at 130,000 dong/kg and shrimp less than 13 pcs/kg are sold at 160,000 dong/kg.
VFM
