Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam is expected to become one of the world’s topshrimp producers thanks to its positive response to the COVID-19 pandemic and itsmodern shrimp farming models, according to industry insiders.

Robins McIntosh, Executive Vice President of the Charoen Pokphand Foods PublicCompany Limited, the largest integrated producer of aquaculture shrimp in theworld, said shrimp production in the world grew 6-7 percent amid COVID-19 anddisruptions to foodstuff supplies across the globe.

High demand in the long term may possibly prompt shrimp aquaculture to expand10 percent, he added.

Regarding Vietnam’s shrimp sector, he said output has experienced stable growththrough the years, from 5-10 percent annually, even 12 percent, due to radicalchanges in shrimp aquaculture technologies.

In recent years, high-tech shrimp farming models have been developed in the southernand Mekong Delta regions and have yielded higher profits for local farmers.

Under models that use intensive farming, the beds of shrimp breeding ponds arecovered with plastic sheets and anti-sunlight nets are hung above. They arealso equipped with oxygen-generating facilities.

According to Associate Professor Dr. Chau Tai Tao from Can Tho University, suchmodels are popular in the Mekong Delta. Eighty percent of shrimp farming areasare set aside for wastewater treatment, so these models ensure good qualitywater for shrimp breeding.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said Vietnam is home to morethan 200,000 ha of high-tech shrimp farming, 186,000 ha of which is in theMekong Delta provinces of Bac Lieu and Soc Trang. The two localities havereceived large amounts of foreign capital for shrimp processing for export.

High-tech shrimp farming has a success rate of 90 percent and offers far higherprofits than traditional shrimp breeding in mud ponds. And the fatality rate amongshrimp bred under high-tech models is significantly lower than in traditionalfarming, local farmers said.

In recent times, Vietnam’s shrimp sector has spared no effort to improve itscapacity, though it has had to struggle with COVID-19 and serious salineintrusion.

Chairman of the Soc Trang Provincial People’s Committee Tran Van Lau said thatin a bid to have high-yield shrimp output, the province is applying advancedtechnologies in shrimp farming, promoting intensive farming, and forming valuechains.

In the time to come, it is necessary to raise awareness among local farmers ofeffective shrimp breeding models, while more attention should be paid to improvinghuman resources to meet the requirements of shrimp farming and processing.

Soc Trang this year targets having 51,000 ha of shrimp breeding area and an outputof 172,000 tonnes, Lau added.

Meanwhile, Bac Lieu province, which is striving to become a shrimp breeding hubin Vietnam, is investing in a three-phase electrical power system to servesemi-intensive and intensive shrimp farming areas, and instructing localfarmers to apply advanced technologies in shrimp breeding to improve the competitivecapacity of local shrimp.

Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Pham Van Thieu said that, lastyear, the province bred shrimps on an area totalling nearly 130,000 ha, 9,000 haof which were cultivated under semi-intensive and intensive farming models./.