Prices of tiger and white-legged shrimp in Tien Giang Province have been on the rise over the past month, bringing big gains to farmers.Unprocessed tiger prawn is now sold at VND220,000 per kilo of 30 units and VND180,000 per kilo of 40 units, up VND40,000 and VND20,000 respectively against last week.
Meanwhile, white-legged shrimp has marked up VND5,000-8,000 to VND95,000-98,000 per kilo of 100 pieces, said Phan Van Phuc, a shrimp trader in Vam Lang Town in Tien Giang’s Go Cong Dong District.
The shrimp crop is coming to an end, so output is falling. However, the demand for shrimp among processors is surging, but supply by shrimp-exporting countries is running short, sending domestic shrimp prices up.
Nguyen Van Thanh, a farmer with a 3,000-square-meter shrimp farm in Tien Giang’s Tan Phu Dong District, said: “Tiger prawns raised in my farm have reached the grade of 30 units per kilo with an estimated output of over 1.5 tons.”
“On Thursday, traders offered a price of VND220,000 a kilo for on-site purchases. This price, after cost deduction, brings a profit of some VND180 million, helping me offset the losses previously caused by massive shrimp deaths and continue farming next year.”
The production cost is now over VND100,000 a kilo, while each kilo of white-legged shrimp costs VND70,000, said farmers in Tien Giang.
With an average output of five tons per hectare of tiger prawn and 8-10 tons a hectare of white-legged shrimp, farmers can earn VND300-500 million from each hectare of tiger prawn and VND200-250 million per hectare of white-legged shrimp.
According to the Tien Giang Sub-Directorate of Fisheries, the total shrimp farming area in the province is more than 5,000 hectares, including some 1,300 hectares of intensive and semi-intensive tiger prawn farming, nearly 1,700 hectares of white-legged shrimp farming and around 2,000 hectares of advanced extensive shrimp farming.
Some 3,300 hectares, or 65.2% of the total area, have been harvested with an output of over 11,000 tons.
