The news report informed that catfish processors in the Mekong Delta have raised tra catfish prices by VND200-400 per kilogram. Catfish farmers are still only able to breakeven. The current prices are VND14,800 to 15,000 per kilogram for white-meat and VND13,500 to 14,500 per kilogram for yellow-meat tra catfish. It is told that the frequent fluctuation in the demand and rising costs two weeks ago compelled thousands of catfish farmers in the Mekong Delta to sell their businesses and go bankrupt.
According to the region’s agriculture and rural development authority, the area of catfish breeding in the country this year is just 3,690 hectares, 60 percent less than 2008. Local aquaculture authorities have confirmed that 15 percent of fish farms in the southern province of Hau Giang have signed contracts with processors to sell their produce.
It is told that there to be just 52 hectares of fish farms in the province next season. In Kien Giang Province, authorities said they predicted the fish-farming area to fall by 80 percent. An expert from a seafood cooperative in Vinh Long Province said he foresaw about 80 percent of catfish farms to go bankrupt if market conditions do not improve.
Nguyen Van Khoi, deputy director of the Soc Trang Agriculture and Rural Development Department, informed that the cost of fish feed makes up 85 percent of a farm’s expenses. Most farmers are feeding their fish with food bought at the market. Therefore, they are at the mercy of the producers who set the price.
