Early stocking to get good price

STO - The rainy season in the Mekong Delta has ended. Shrimp prices are high. The shortage of raw shrimp is expected to last until the end of the first quarter of 2025. All of this has been a catalyst for some farms and shrimp farmers to decide to release brackish water shrimp early in 2025 to sell shrimp at high prices.

Putting aside joy, sadness, and regret, since October, many shrimp farmers in coastal provinces in the Mekong Delta have returned to stocking shrimp for the new brackish water shrimp crop with the expectation of selling shrimp at high prices as forecast. Currently, although salinity and some environmental indicators have only reached the threshold for stocking in some areas near the sea, the atmosphere of the new farming season is quite exciting compared to previous years. Two brackish water shrimp farming areas of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company with a total area of ​​over 500 hectares have also finished stocking over 200 hectares since mid-November and the remaining areas are expected to be finished stocking on December 20. Meanwhile, according to the 2025 brackish water shrimp crop calendar issued by the Department of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the key brackish water shrimp farming areas in the Mekong Delta will start stocking shrimp for the new farming season in early January and end in October 2025.

Many households release shrimp early in the hope of selling them at a high price.

According to Mr. Ho Quoc Luc - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, raw shrimp will still be in short supply until the end of the first quarter of next year, so processing enterprises will have to buy raw shrimp at high prices, while the price of finished shrimp consumed will have to compete fiercely with cheaper shrimp from many countries, which will be a very difficult problem. Therefore, Sao Ta Company decided to stock early to be able to take the initiative in part of the raw material source right in the first quarter of 2025. Mr. Luc shared: "The rainy season in the Mekong Delta has ended, the probability of La Nina is also gradually decreasing, the company's farming area is very close to the sea and we also have many years of successful shrimp farming experience, so we can stock early. Hopefully, in 2025, the weather will be hot, which will be more favorable for shrimp farming, improve the situation of raw shrimp soon, and the shrimp industry will operate more stably."

Currently, shrimp prices are still high and are forecast to remain high until the end of the first quarter of next year, which is a good sign for those who raise shrimp in intensive and super-intensive farming. These are also the models that have the most conditions to be able to stock early compared to the seasonal schedule. According to the writer's records, not only Soc Trang, but also some other provinces in the region such as Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Tra Vinh, Ben Tre... shrimp farming households in intensive and super-intensive farming models are taking advantage of the opportunity to stock early. According to these farmers, if they stock at the present time and choose good breeds, and do not encounter much unseasonal rain, the possibility of success is also very high. This is what stimulates large shrimp farmers to take advantage of stocking early in this new farming season.

However, caution is always the top priority for farmers, so apart from a few large farms that stock the entire area, the majority only stock a part of the area for exploration, and if favorable, continue to stock the entire area. The reason is that this early farming season, although having the advantage of high shrimp prices, also poses many risks for farmers, especially in terms of weather and diseases, due to the large difference in day and night temperatures. Therefore, only farming areas and households with sufficient conditions should stock to avoid unfortunate risks. In fact, disease and damage have occurred in some of these new farming areas. Therefore, to ensure a successful farming season, the authorities recommend that farmers be extremely careful right from the stage of pond renovation to water treatment, choosing quality breeds from reputable units, etc.

For shrimp farmers, each crop always carries an expectation, which is to have a good harvest and sell at a high price. A good harvest is always the top priority of each shrimp crop, so choosing the time to release the seeds is extremely important. Because if the harvest is not good, even if the shrimp price is sky high, the farmers will have nothing to benefit from. Therefore, in this early crop, although the risk of storms in shrimp farming has decreased due to the end of the season, the risk of disease is still looming, especially white feces disease and EHP disease. The opportunity to sell at a high price is very large, but the potential risks for shrimp farmers if they release the seeds at the present time are not small.

“Having courage” is not enough to “get rich”, but it requires qualifications, skills, experience… for farmers to have a successful early release as expected. And that is also something that more than anyone, every farmer understands through both successful and failed cases. Hopefully, the early release will bring farmers joy and more motivation when entering the main release season.

Written by: TICH CHU

Source:  https://baosoctrang.org.vn/