Some large farming areas in Hà Tĩnh, such as Lộc Hà, Nghi Xuân, Cẩm Xuyên, Kỳ Anh districts, are conducting partial harvest of the 2022 spring-summer crop. The shrimp price is shooting up at the highest rate after two years of “freezing” due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Farmer Nguyễn Xuân Linh (in Kỳ Văn commune of Kỳ Anh district) has just sold about five tons of commercial shrimp, size 40 pcs/kg, at the price of 180,000 dong/kg. Traders came to visit and buy all the shrimps from two ponds. This is in contrast to the same time last year when farmers themselves had to contact traders and wait for a long time to sell out all the shrimps.
“However, some households suffered from massive death of shrimp due to the complicated weather at the beginning of the crop. They started to restock in March or early April and would get the harvest in at the end of July. Fortunately, the good price at the beginning of the season made shrimp farmers have more money for reproduction”, added Linh.
Being concerned of the summer heat which may affect the health of shrimps, farmer Trần Văn Đức (in Thạch Sơn, Thạch Hà) carried out an early harvest. “As the shrimp price was high, I decided to sell nearly seven tons of commercial shrimps, size 60 pcs/kg, at more than 140 thousand dong/kg. Such a high price helped me earn good profit. The demand for shrimps is high amidst the travel season, I mainly sell shrimp to local traders”, said Đức.
The Xuân Thành Seafood Aquaculture Cooperative in Xuân Phổ of Nghi Xuân district has just sold nearly 30 tons of commercial shrimps, size 40 pcs/kg, at the price of 180,000 dong/kg. Hồ Quang Dũng, a member of the Cooperative, said: “With such a high price at the beginning of the season, the shrimp price at the middle of the season (in the next 25 days) may not drop as sharply as it did in the previous years. The increase in the shrimp price somehow eases the burden of local farmers when feed, materials, drugs, and breeds are fetching high prices”.
Live commercial shrimp, size 30-35 pcs/kg are bought at 260 thousand dong/kg, size 40 pcs/kg are bought at 180 thousand dong/kg, size 50-55 pcs/kg are bought at 155-160 thousand dong/kg, size 60-70 pcs/kg are bought at 140-145 thousand dong/kg. The price of frozen shrimp sold to factories is usually lower than live shrimps at 20-25 thousand dong/kg, depending on size.
Trader Trần Văn Hưng from Thanh Hóa province said that such prices are higher than last year at 18-20%. Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, and Hà Nội are busy with purchasing shrimp to fulfill orders of big customers.
According to Deputy Director of the Hà Tĩnh provincial sub-department of Fisheries Lưu Quang Cần, the thriving domestic market has resulted in the increase of the price of white leg shrimp recently.
However, stocking has just been conducted in lots of shrimp farming areas due to the bad weather at the beginning of the crop (from late February to March), thus the harvest will just be carried out at the end of July.
The shrimp price is evaluated to stay high as compared to the average price of the last two years.
VFM
