Caption: Tra fish harvested on a farm in Đồng Tháp Province’s Thanh Bình District. – VNA/VNS Photo Văn Trí

ĐỒNG THÁP – Đồng Tháp Province is encouraging aquaculture and tra fish fry breeding farms to develop linkages between themselves to improve output and value.

The province, one of the largest tra producers in the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta, has a yield of 25 billion fry a year, according its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The fry farming areas are mostly in Hồng Ngự, Châu Thành and Cao Lãnh districts.

Huỳnh Tất Đạt, deputy director of the department, said the province has encouraged producers to join hands and set up clubs, co-operative groups and co-operatives to produce fry in large volumes and with even quality.

It would gradually replace breeding stocks with high-quality ones and popularise fry production processes that ensure bio-safety and environmental protection, he said.

It has strengthened tie-ups with research institutes and universities to improve the quality of breeding fish, he added.

The Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 has implemented a project for producing high-quality tra breeding fish and recently supplied 60,000 of them to the delta, including 29,000 to Đồng Tháp farms.

Huỳnh Minh Tuấn, deputy chairman of the province People’s Committee, said the province aims to ensure 75 per cent of fish fry are of high quality, and 60 per cent of fry farms have high-quality breeding fish to produce them.

All fry farming establishments would have digitised identification codes and production certificates, he promised.

Fifty per cent of tra farming areas would obtain good agricultural practices (GAP) certification, he said.

It wants 90 per cent of tra breeding areas owned by households to have linkages with processing companies to guarantee outlets, he said.

Đạt of the agriculture department said the province has 1,507ha of tra farms and has so far harvested 83,000 tonnes this year.

The price of the fish is high and farmers earn good incomes, he added.

Lê Minh Triển, who has a nine-hectare tra farm in Hồng Ngự City, said the fish fetches VNĐ30,000 (US$1.3) a kilogramme, up VNĐ6,000 from a year ago, enabling farmers to earn a profit of VNĐ3,000 - 4,000 per kilogramme.

The province has established many concentrated tra fish farming areas and granted 368 identification numbers to ponds. Around 1,509ha of ponds have received the numbers, with 60 per cent of them following international standards.

The province targets exports of $980 million by 2025. Its tra is sold to 134 countries. – VNS