Since 2015, lobster farming in Vietnam has grown rapidly in terms of quantity, cage volume and output; gradually developing towards commodity production for export. However, lobster farming still faces many challenges and shortcomings in managing seed sources, feed, and farming areas.
Notably, lobster farming households are always facing natural disasters, epidemics, polluted farming environments, and consumption depends on informal exports. Central coastal localities are implementing many solutions for sustainable lobster farming.
High economic efficiency
In 2024, the whole country will have about 280,500 lobster cages, with an output of more than 5,870 tons, and an estimated export turnover of 430 million USD; of which Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa provinces account for more than 95% of the total number of cages and output nationwide. In Phu Yen alone, in 2024, the total number of cages in the whole province will be nearly 177,000 cages, with an output of about 2,260 tons, equivalent to 1,800 billion VND, leading the country.
Returning to the coastal villages of Song Cau, considered the "lobster capital", everyone can clearly see the rapid wealth of lobster farmers through each harvest season. Chairman of Song Cau Town People's Committee Phan Tran Van Huy said that currently in the town there are about 4,000 households with about 10,000 workers participating in aquaculture, mainly raising lobsters in cages. In 2024, Song Cau will have about 129,320 lobster cages, with an output of more than 2,190 tons, and the value obtained per unit of aquaculture water surface is about 1.55 billion VND/ha/year.
Xuan Phuong Commune is the locality with the largest number and output of lobster farming with 1,259 households, raising 70,766 cages. In 2024 alone, people sold 28,650 cages of various types of lobster meat, with an output of 1,115 tons (with an average price of 750,000-850,000 VND/kg), the locality has a revenue equivalent to 920 billion VND.
According to Chairman of Xuan Phuong Commune People's Committee Pham Ngoc Hung, the efficiency of shrimp farming has accelerated the completion of criteria to strive to build the commune into a ward in 2025, in line with the general plan to build Song Cau town into a city. By the end of 2024, the locality had completed 13/13 criteria.
For sustainable development of lobster farming
According to the Department of Fisheries, each year, lobster cage farming brings in more than 3,500 billion VND in revenue, while also creating jobs for a large number of people from many activities such as farming, seed exploitation, etc. However, in recent times, lobster farming has revealed many limitations, lacks sustainability, and lacks a synchronous plan.
Currently, even in key provinces of lobster farming, there is still no detailed planning for lobster farming areas. Meanwhile, in areas that have been planned in detail, farming density is increasing, leading to the risk of breaking the planning, or the planning is located together with other marine farming objects... causing difficulties in management and making it easy for diseases to spread.
Besides, the seed is also the most difficult problem of lobster farming; because up to now, farmers are completely dependent on the seed caught naturally, using many methods such as net fishing, trapping, diving... This leads to the problem of uneven size and poor quality of the seed; the health of the shrimp is not guaranteed, leading to the shrimp often dying at the beginning of farming, or being weak and slow to grow. High price and poor quality of seed put farmers at many risks.
Most of the farms are small-scale, the rate of registered aquaculture cages is very low, traditional cages account for a large proportion, and have not expanded to open sea areas. Farming technology is outdated, and the connection between producers and businesses consuming products has not been strengthened...
To develop lobster farming in a stable and sustainable manner, localities need to focus on reviewing and rearranging farming areas, organizing registration for cage aquaculture, strengthening management, and preventing environmental pollution and disease.
In addition, it is necessary to prioritize investment and application of sustainable commercial farming technology, offshore farming, onshore farming, conversion from traditional cage farming to HDPE cages adapted to climate change; at the same time, there should be policies to encourage businesses to participate in investment development, organize production according to the value chain...
Song Cau town - which has the largest number of lobster cages in the country - is strongly implementing sustainable shrimp farming solutions.
The locality is forming an offshore aquaculture area of 1,380 hectares, investing in farming technology suitable for each farming object; at the same time, perfecting 129 aquaculture community groups according to the regulations of autonomy, mutual assistance, production support, traceability of goods, environmental protection, security and order protection; attaching the responsibility and role of local authorities.
In addition, Song Cau town has implemented a project to collect and treat waste from cages and rafts; invest in coastal infrastructure for aquaculture; apply science and technology and develop offshore aquaculture; and convert cages and rafts to adapt to climate change.
"The locality is also proposing policies to support people affected by the clearance of cages and rafts to ensure social security and stable jobs after the arrangement of cages and rafts...", Chairman of Song Cau Town People's Committee Phan Tran Van Huy added.
Mr. Trinh Quang Tu, Director of the Center for Fisheries Development Planning and Consulting (Institute of Fisheries Economics and Planning), the unit has built two models of linking production and consumption of lobsters according to an effective and sustainable value chain, said: In Phu Yen, the unit built a chain of linking and consuming green lobsters in Song Cau town.
This chain has formed a link between Song Cau Lobster General Service Cooperative with Linh Phat Seafood Trading and Service Company Limited and Thanh Nga Company Limited to provide quality lobster breeds and export farmed lobsters.
Song Cau Lobster General Service Cooperative currently has 35 members, including 1 enterprise, with about 2,300 green lobster cages, with an output of about 100 tons/year. The unit has trained the cooperative in management skills, production and business planning, product traceability, chain production linkage and market development.
At the same time, the unit also offers solutions to prevent and treat diseases in farmed lobsters, preserve live lobsters, build brands from models, promote trade to develop lobster consumption markets, etc.
"After more than 1 year of implementing the chain of linking and consuming green lobsters in Song Cau, there are still many difficulties. The detailed planning of lobster farming areas, water surface allocation, rearrangement of cages, and issuance of aquaculture codes... have not been implemented yet. The source of lobster seeds has not been guaranteed to provide sufficient quantity and quality, and the application of advanced technologies is not much... These things need to be overcome in the coming time...", Mr. Trinh Quang Tu shared.
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