Fishing boats dock at Phú Qúy Island in Bình Thuận Province’s Phú Quý District. VNS Photo Ngọc Diệp

Favourable weather and the appearance of a large quantity of pelagic fish in waters offshore contributed to the increase.

Fishermen in the province, one of the country's largest fishing grounds, caught 93,000 tonnes of aquatic species in the period, up 2 per cent against the same period last year. 

The caught aquatic species include anchovies, herring, tunas, cuttlefish, blue-legged crabs, clams and others, according to the province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The province targets catching 210,000 tonnes of fish and other aquatic species this year.

In the first half of the year, farmers in the province bred 1,380ha and harvested nearly 6,900 tonnes of aquatic species, including shrimp and fish.

The province's Agriculture and Fishery Extension Centre has developed shrimp breeding models that meet Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards and intensive shrimp farming. The latter harvests 14-15 tonnes of white-legged shrimp per hectare a crop.

Farmers can breed up to three white-legged shrimp crops a year. They are now entering the main harvest season for white-legged shrimp, but most farmers are not earning much profit now because of a decline in prices.

Traders are now paying VNĐ80,000 (US$3.4) for a kilo of white-legged shrimp if a kilo contains at least 100 shrimp.  

Nguyễn Lội, who breeds white-legged shrimp in Tuy Phong District’s Vĩnh Hảo Commune, said the price of white-legged shrimp declined this year. “Most farmers will not see a profit."

The expansion of white-legged shrimp farming in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta in recent years has contributed to the decline in price, according to farmers.

Quality shrimp fry

In the first half of the year, the province produced 13 billion shrimp fry, an increase of 5.5 per cent year-on-year, according to the department.

It has more than 150 shrimp fry producers, mostly in Tuy Phong District and Phan Thiết City, who produce 20-30 billion shrimp fry a year. Its shrimp fry are sold in the province and mostly to the Mekong Delta.

The province is one of the country’s largest shrimp fry producers, and the quality of shrimp fry there tops the country.

Phạm Kim Thành, deputy director of the province’s Agriculture and Fishery Extension Centre, said the province’s fishery sector has focused on the quality of its shrimp fry.

The province has regularly organised training courses on techniques to produce high-quality shrimp fry and has implemented programmes to produce disease-free shrimp fry, he said. VNS