Farmers in Vietnam are raising the white legged shrimps in a bid to diversify their products and increase their output. The Aquaculture Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development announced that the shrimps are bred in a total of 12,411 hectares out of a total 369,094 hectares devoted to farming for all kinds of shrimp. The ministry said that most of the area for cultivating white leg shrimps was previously used for raising sugpo prawns.
Nguyen Viet Thang, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, opined that the aim of this conversion is to diversify our exports. He also said that a total of 24 provinces have produced 12,300 tonnes of white-legged shrimps and 78,300 tonnes of prawns so far this year. According to the ministry breeding white-legged shrimps have many advantages because of their high productivity and because they are quick to grow, consuming little food and they are more immune to diseases.
It is said that globally, white-legged shrimps have many positive changes and Vietnam should make use of this advantage to generate jobs and raise farmers’ incomes. Till date Vietnam had 2,488 shrimp breed production farms, including 2,437 prawn farms and 51 white leg shrimp farms. The provincial Departments for Agricultural and Rural Development declared that in the first months of this year, a large number of prawns and white-legged shrimps were infected with diseases.
Nguyen Viet Thang, affirmed that it is essential to strictly manage the quality of these two kinds of shrimp and to prevent breeding them outside the designated areas. The ministry is also ready to ask the Aquaculture Breeding Department to simplify its administrative procedures and complete them within seven days.
