The golden age of Vietnamese pangasius is returning, starting with methodical, professional work, with the heart of Vietnamese businesses.

About 10 years ago, with a "wrong swimming path", pangasius - a natural specialty bestowed on the Mekong Delta (MRD) helped many fish farmers live "healthy" lives for many generations - from "luck". ” has become a "disaster" by causing many businesses and thousands of fish farmers to go bankrupt and sink deeply into debt. There have been people who have quietly "adjusted the swimming path" for catfish, and in that way they have regained the golden age for this type of catfish...

The "Robinsons" who "eat and sleep with pangasius"
On September 6, 2018, on Linh Islet in the middle of Ham Luong River (Giong Trom, Ben Tre) there was a meeting of nearly 30 "Robinsons" on the Tien River - "island lords", each person in charge of 1 island (in local language). called "con" located in the middle of the Tien River or its tributaries.

The work of the "Robinsons" on the "dune" is to organize the farming of "clean" pangasius ("eco-pangasius", "Global Gap pangasius"), according to international standards, approved by strict markets such as the EU. , Japan, United States... accepted. Every couple of months, they gather on a certain "island" to discuss only one thing: Safe, quality, and effective pangasius farming.

The host of the meeting that day was "Robinson" female Pham Thi Thanh Thuy - "chief" of Linh village. In addition to Ms. Thuy, among the nearly 30 "Robinsons" on the Tien River attending the meeting that day, there were also two other female "Robinsons": Tran Thi Ut and Duong Bich Tuyen.

Ms. Thuy said, the "payroll" for each island is 4-5 engineers (aquaculture industry) and 20-30 workers. All are people from the "mainland", many people live far away, as far away as Dong Thap and Ca Mau. On the island, they are provided with a place to eat and rest, which is simple but "safe and ecological". Besides when there is an unexpected need to take leave, each month they have 2 "free" days to go to the mainland, the rest they have to "camp" on the dunes.

"Ecological" pangasius farming is very elaborate! Therefore, at each farming site there are up to 4-5 engineers. People who take care of water: Salt concentration of river water, "redness" of silt in the water, high or low water level, when to take water into the pond, when to release water into the river... People who take care of food: Feed the fish What time to eat, the amount of food so that there is neither too much nor too little, the type of food depends on the growth cycle of the fish...

Others worry about breeding animals, monitoring fish development, cleaning ponds, treating fish diseases... All work is done methodically, according to international "processes", and is supervised. jointly by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Sustainable Trade Initiative Netherlands (IDH) to manage global standards for responsible aquaculture.

Ms. Thuy is from the same hometown as Female General Nguyen Thi Dinh - Luong Hoa commune, Giong Trom district. After graduating from school with a major in "aquaculture diseases" nearly 10 years ago, she returned to work at Linh island when this "clean" fish farming site came into operation. With 23 ponds, a total water surface area of more than 22 hectares, the "Linh island" farming site supplies the factory with over 10,000 tons of fish each year. Like everyone else, every month Thuy has 2 days to return to the mainland to visit home, and the rest of the year she stays in the middle of the river to "eat and sleep with pangasius".

Many other businesses in Tien Giang, Ben Tre and the Mekong Delta provinces are also creating their own farming areas to proactively source pangasius raw materials for processing and export. Most businesses have surpassed 50% of their own pangasius fish sources, many businesses have reached nearly 100%...

Pangasius... encroaches on the sea
When I first set foot on the farming site "Con Linh", I was surprised because this place was like an eco-tourism site with straight coconut banks, a clean and beautiful landscape full of flowers, especially not seeing a single piece of trash around the camp. Growing lots of gourd vegetables reminds us of a time of "self-sufficiency". Only later did I understand that "green - clean - beautiful" is also a criterion for "ecological pangasius" farming sites.

Pangasius only breeds in Bien Ho in Cambodia. During the flood season, fish eggs from Tonle Sap follow the water of the Mekong River to the Mekong Delta. Since ancient times, people in the Mekong Delta living in the upstream of the Tien and Hau rivers have known how to catch pangasius eggs in floodwater bubbles to breed and gradually develop into "raft villages" raising pangasius.

In the 1990s, when An Giang province successfully "forced" pangasius to reproduce naturally, it helped develop the pangasius farming movement in upstream provinces such as An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Vinh Long..., pulling According to the processing industry, pangasius export is growing very quickly. But then, that golden age did not last long when business practices were predatory, farming was unmanaged, and businesses were "dirty" competition, leading to a crisis, making both fish farmers and fish farmers miserable. Export enterprises all suffered losses, many people went bankrupt, went into debt, people were left to dry, and the pangasius industry fell into a gloomy period.

At this moment, some people calmly recognized the "danger" and "chance" in pangasius. The core issue is how to manage farming areas and pangasius farming techniques to ensure input quality. If we can overcome the practice of small-scale farming, where farmers raise their own food and then sell raw materials to export processing enterprises, there will no longer be many potential risks and uncertainties. Some businesses in Tien Giang, Ben Tre has made a "breakthrough" by organizing its own fish farming to create raw materials for production. But land along the river is narrow, densely populated, and there is no land fund large enough to farm according to the farm model. Furthermore, the environment in densely populated areas is not clean, making it difficult to isolate diseases...

Mr. Nguyen Van Dao (General Director of Godaco Joint Stock Company - My Tho Industrial Park, Tien Giang province) is from Giong Trom district (Ben Tre province), also "suffered" from the "hot and cold" of pangasius, and suddenly remembered the The island is located in the middle of Ham Luong River, his hometown. The island has a large land area with few people, the environment has not been polluted, mainly growing low-value coconuts, if switching to pangasius farming will be convenient.

But the "islands" are located at the end of the source, only about 10km from the sea. In the dry season, the river water is salty, and pangasius is a freshwater fish. A bold idea appeared in the mind of this 40-year-old businessman with white hair: Train catfish to get used to the saltwater environment. And Linh Islet (about 12km from the sea) has been the chosen place for catfish to get used to salt water.

It is not difficult for engineers to understand that pangasius can withstand salinity up to 8‰ (parts per thousand), but if the salinity suddenly increases, the fish will be shocked, "slip" and die. Therefore, the problem is to gradually adapt the fish to the salinity.

First, the fingerlings must be domesticated in fresh water for about 2 months. Then add saline river water into the pond, until the salinity in the pond reaches 1‰, then stop. A few weeks later, continue to bring salt water from the river into the pond to raise the salinity to 2‰ and so on until the salinity in the pond reaches 8‰ when the fish have just grown.

"Chief Con" Thuy said that when raising pangasius in salt water, the fish will grow more slowly than when raising it in fresh water. In return, saltwater-raised pangasius has white meat and a unique aroma, so it is popular with customers. Another advantage is that when raising pangasius in salt water, it will reduce up to 80% of parasitic skin diseases or liver fluke disease...

So, from a few successful ponds on Linh islet, up to now, Godaco has hundreds of ponds with about 240 hectares of water surface on the islets located in the middle of the Tien River. From a few initial engineers, Godaco's pangasius farming team has now grown to more than 120 people, along with nearly 500 farming workers.

The Company's proportion of self-raised raw pangasius is increasing. The company is the first enterprise in the country to be 100% autonomous in its pangasius raw material sources for processing and export - an important condition for the enterprise to be granted international quality certificates, allowing the enterprise's pangasius products to enter major markets. the most difficult school.

Source: Tepbac