Australian lobster costs 15 million VND each

Weighing up to 4-5 kg and expensive, Australian natural spiny lobsters are not always available to import to Vietnam.

As the most expensive high-end seafood in the shrimp line, the 4-5 kg lobster caught in the wild is in small quantities. In Vietnam, this type is mostly farmed in the seas of Nha Trang or Phu Yen, but the quantity is not much.

Recently, a company in Ho Chi Minh City imported nearly 100 natural Australian lobsters.

A 4kg lobster at a seafood store in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Linh Dan

Mr. Tran Van Truong, CEO of the Royal Seafood chain, said that this was the first time he had imported a batch of giant lobsters before the holiday. In previous years, this type of lobster only came once a year or every 2-3 months, customers would report that they had the goods. Of the 100 lobsters that arrived at Ho Chi Minh City port earlier this week, about 10 weighed 4-5 kg, but all were ordered by customers for the September 2 holiday. "We only have the type weighing 1-3 kg left," Mr. Truong said.

According to him, the selling price is up to nearly 3.5 million VND per kilogram. The 2 kg type costs 7 million VND, the 4-5 kg type costs 14-17 million VND. These shrimps are 40 cm long and 18 cm wide, not including the legs and antennae.

Having also sold 20 imported lobsters, Mr. Toan, the owner of a seafood warehouse on Pham Van Dong Street (Thu Duc City), said that natural lobsters weighing 2 kg each are rare, and those weighing 4-5 kg are "extremely rare". In particular, those caught in clean, strictly protected waters like Australia are even more expensive. Therefore, Mr. Toan often has to collect orders and ask customers to deposit 50% in advance before daring to import goods.

Not only are Australian natural lobsters expensive, but Vietnamese products are also expensive. On the market, Vietnamese products cost 2 million VND per kilogram, 1.5-1.8 kg costs 2.5 million VND, and 2-4 kg costs 2.8-3.5 million VND per kilogram (depending on weight).

Spiny lobsters are known as the “king of lobsters” because of their size and nutritional value. They usually live at a depth of 1-50 m below the seabed, commonly in coastal waters with low transparency. This type of lobster has a hard shell, is turquoise in color, and is very meaty.

This is a type of shrimp rich in nutrients, protein, low in fat and carbohydrates. The fat in this lobster is unsaturated, calories and cholesterol are much lower than everyday meat.

In Vietnam, lobster is a large-scale marine aquaculture species, concentrated in the two provinces of Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa. Currently, these two provinces have about 140,000 lobster cages, with an output of about 2,000 tons per crop. This includes species such as spiny lobster, green lobster, and bamboo lobster.

In these two provinces, Phu Yen raises the most lobsters, with over 2,200 households raising them in nearly 35,000 commercial cages, with an estimated harvest output of 150 tons per year; revenue of about 3,000 billion VND per year.

According to VNE

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