The government of Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam, has been trying to increase production of disease-free shrimp seeds to battle frequent outbreaks. In the province, 842 shrimp-seed breeders supply some 6 billion disease-free seeds to local shrimpers annually.
The 6 billion seeds produced locally supplies half of the shrimpers' demands while the other half are purchased from other Vietnamese provinces. The quality of shrimp seeds bought from other provinces, however, are often inferior. At the most, only 40 percent are disease-free.
The Ca Mau government is aiming to supply 90 percent of the local shrimpers' demands. To encourage local breeding centers to participate in producing disease-free seeds, the government creates various incentives for shrimpers, including tax reductions, favorable loans as well as free technology supports.
Ca Mau is home to the largest area of shrimp farms in Vietnam with a total of 250,000 hectares of shrimp ponds. Annually, the province produces 12 billion shrimp weighing a total of 100,000 tons. Most Ca Mau shrimpers are small-scale. A total of 140,000 households in Ca Mau are involved in the shrimp-farming industry.
