Vietnamese government has introduced a stimulus package to boost agriculture, including subsidized loans for farmers. But to its surprise this has failed to help as many farmers struggle to access the loans. It is informed that currently, 13 Tra catfish breeding households in Tien Gang Province, out of 90, have received loans of VND34 billion, while Tien Giang Agribank was ready to lend VND400-500 billion.
According to Le Thanh Dung, head of the Hoa Hung tra fish breeding co-operative, among 26 members of the co-operative, only one member has received a loan with four percent interest. He added that this was because many breeders still had not paid off previous loans, but in order to access the subsidized loans they have to first pay those debts off. To pay the debt, the members need to borrow money with higher rates of interest.
Tran Van Tao, from Cai Lay District, has been breeding tra fish for five years on his 8,000 square meter farm. He was initially glad to hear about the Government loans, but the bank refused his application as he did not have a supply contract. Now he is in trap as no company has signed a contract with him because he needs to develop his farm but cannot access funds in order to do so.
Thousands of fish breeders in Go Cong also suffer from the same problem, as they do not have any security to back up loans. The issue also is common in the shrimp breeding area in Ca Mau, where 90 percent of breeders already have much higher interest loans backed by their property. The situation is certainly not in favour of fish farmers as they are in fix how to take the advantage of government subsidized loans.
