According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, over 95.4% of the fish, or about 1.03 million tonnes, were caught at sea, up 2.8% year on year while 49,000 tonnes were captured from rivers.
However, the total tuna catches of the country’s largest tuna fleets in Phu Yen, Binh Dinh and Khanh Hoa provinces declined in January – April. The three provinces brought ashore a total of over 7,420 tonnes of tuna, down 14% from the same period last year. Binh Dinh reported the highest decrease of 18% to nearly 1,590 tonnes of tuna.
Meanwhile, the aquaculture output during the period exceeded 1 million tonnes, up 6% from the same time last year.
The Mekong Delta region harvested some 373,000 tonnes of tra fish, a year-on-year surge of 8%.
With tra fish fetching high prices, local farmers have rushed to dig ponds and breed more fish, leading to the scarcity of fish fry and increase in their prices.
In a stark contrast, farmers have been rushing off their feet to harvest shrimp for fear of price drop. Each kilogramme of white-leg shrimp is being sold at VND110,000-VND120,000 (US$4.84- US$5.28), decreasing VND10,000-VND20,000 (US$0.44-US$0.88) per kg from the previous month.
