Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD) has submitted to the Prime Minister a national action planfor the development of the shrimp industry through 2025.

The plan, according to the ministry’s General Department of Fishery, looks toturn the shrimp industry into a key economic sector with sustainabledevelopment that is adaptable to climate change and friendly to theenvironment.

At the same time, the plan hopes to improve the quality, efficiency ofproduction, and competitiveness of Vietnamese shrimp products, in a bid tobenefit farmers, businesses and the country’s economy.

To reach those targets, the ministry will review and upgrade irrigationinfrastructure, key traffic and the availability of electricity in regions inwhich shrimp are raised, based upon modern industrial models; and re-organisesmall production facilities to become cooperatives for creating larger regionsthat will connect with enterprises supplying input materials and consumingproducts within the value chain.

Also, the ministry will research and ensure that before 2025 the industry willoffer a variety of shrimp that grow quickly and are free of diseases. It willalso research the technology of shrimp feed production to actively produce thisproduct at home.

The industry will apply scientific and technological advances and modernmanagement measures to shrimp production regions, and modern technologies forprocessing shrimp to increase the volume of value-added products meeting foodhygiene and safety standards, as well as the demands of importing countries.

In addition, the ministry will study local and global markets in terms ofconsumer tastes, product categories, market demand and competition with othershrimp exporting countries to build an efficient market expansion plan. It willalso improve the advertising of brands and build geographical indications for Vietnam’sshrimp products in key export markets, reported Dau tu newspaper.

According to the action plan, the domestic shrimp industry is expected to gain 4.5-5billion USD in export value and record an annual average growth of 9.5-12 percentin 2017-20. In 2021-25, a hi-tech shrimp industry and large-scaleeco-shrimp farming areas will be developed with infrastructure and technicalservices having synchronous, efficient and sustainable investment. The shrimpindustry expects to reach the goals of 10 billion USD in export value and anaverage growth of 12-14 percent per year.

The total area rearing brackish water shrimp is estimated to reach 710,000ha,with total output of 850,000 tonnes of shrimp during 2017-20, and expand to750,000ha and 1.1 million tonnes of output in the period from 2020-25.Theministry will review the plan for regions rearing shrimp using industrialmodels and hi-tech procedures, especially in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta regionand central coastal region, to increase average productivity by 1 milliontonnes per hectare.

At the same time, it will build and develop ecological shrimp areas with largescales in the Cuu Long Delta region, concentrated in Ca Mau, Kien Giang,Bac Lieu, Soc Trang and Tra Vinh provinces.

Ecological centres for rearing tiger prawn (shrimp-forest and shrimp-rice) willbe built in Ca Mau province. Giant fresh water prawns will be reared in DongThap, An Giang, Ca Mau, Kien Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Tra Vinh and Ben Treprovinces. Further, lobsters will be raised in Khanh Hoa, Phu Yen and Binh Dinhprovinces.

The ministry will have trade promotions, expand export markets and developpost-harvest preservation to assure high export values.

In 2016, Vietnam gained a total export value for shrimp of 3.1 billion USD, ayear-on-year increase of 4 percent, said the General Department of Fishery.This year, the export value is expected to continue to grow.-VNA