Shrimp farmers in Vietnam have been increasing the size of the farming areas dedicated to the production of black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) to try and offset the reduced market price of whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
At the end of last month, the total area given over to black tiger shrimp farming was 574,000 hectares, up 4.5 percent year-on-year. However, production in the first seven months of this year was estimated at 131,000 metric tons (MT), down 3.7 percent year-on-year.
In the Mekong Delta, the main aquaculture production region of Vietnam, black tiger shrimp farms covered an area of 540,400 hectares, up 2.5 percent year-on-year. Production for January through July 2015 was estimated at 124,000 MT, down 8.1 percent.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s total vannamei farming area at the end of last month was 45,600 hectares, down 23.2 percent. Around 118,900 MT of the shrimp was harvested in the first seven months, down 11.6 percent on the corresponding period of 2014, with most of the reduction again coming in the Mekong Delta.
The total vannamei farming area in the Mekong Delta was 39,100 hectares, yielding 84,900 MT.
According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the country’s total farmed seafood production in July was estimated at 361,000 MT, down 1.1 percent year-on-year.
