How to cut fish farming costs?

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has forecast that the total catfish output for export would reach 0.5 million tons this year, with $1.5 billion in revenue. However, high production costs have limited the competitiveness of Vietnam’s catfish on the world market.

Production costs high

“Production cost for my fish ponds will be 15,000-15,500 dong per kilo this year,” calculated Pham Thanh Tin, a fish farmer in Can Tho.

Seafood processing factories purchase fish from farmers at 15,500 dong per kilo, so fish farmers cannot make high profits. Processors cannot buy fish at higher prices, because average exports in 2009 decreased by $0.17 per kilo compared with 2008.

Fish farming production costs have increased by 50 percent in the last five years for many reasons. The price of fish feed, which accounts for the highest production cost, has jumped in the last few years. It sells at 8000-9300 dong per kilo, much higher than 5000 dong per kilo just five years ago.

Sellers explain that higher dollar prices have made feed import materials more expensive. Soybeans, for example, have increased by 40 percent compared to August 2009, while maize rose by 20 percent and fish powder by nearly 20 percent.

If fish farmers use low quality feed, fish will not gain weight, so the farmers must spend more money.

Analysts say the low quality of breeders also makes production costs higher. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), for the fish farming area in the Mekong Delta in 2009, the market needed an estimated 1.3-1.5 billion breeders, but 2 billion breeders entered the market. The breeders were of low quality and farmers had to purchase additional breeders.

How to reduce costs?

According to MARD, the prices of feed for aquaculture are now relatively high, while the products are of low quality. Why are such products still selling? The blame lies with the ineffective product control of state management agencies.

Nguyen Huu Dung, Deputy Chair of VASEP, once asked MARD to set standards on fee quality and prices, since those in Vietnam were higher by 20-30 percent than that in China and Thailand. The agency has yet to respond.

Regarding fish diseases, aquaculture experts report that it is possible to minimize risks if water observation and aquatic diseases supervision systems operate effectively, but the system lacks investment.

As such, reducing production costs of fish farming does not depend on farmers, but instead on management agencies.

Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon

Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam farming