People sitting on the fire
The November days around Van Phong Bay are quiet. This scene is far different from the bustling atmosphere of lobster buyers and sellers before.
Mr. Nguyen Duc Quan (Dam Mon village, Van Thanh commune) has 140 lobster cages that are in harvest time. For many months now, traders have not come to buy lobsters, causing Mr. Quan to face difficulties and pressure due to high feed costs combined with heavy bank interest.
According to Mr. Quan, for many years, the main market for lobster consumption has been China. This year, China suddenly stopped importing lobsters because of amendments to the wildlife protection law, which includes banning the trade of wild lobsters.
Your side introduced a surprising policy that made lobster farmers passive. Immediately, the price of lobsters in the market dropped dramatically. If previously, the price of lobsters could reach 2.6 million VND/kg, now the price of lobsters has dropped to 1 million VND/kg.
Even sadder is that when the price of lobsters hit rock bottom, there were still no traders coming to buy.
Similarly, Mr. Le Thai Bao (Van Gia town, Van Ninh district) raised up to 8,000 lobsters this year. He raised lobsters of all sizes for sale two months ago but has not yet been able to sell them to traders.
Because he couldn’t sell the lobsters, Mr. Bao had to keep them in the cages in the hope that the market would change. So every day, Mr. Bao had to spend 5-7 million VND to buy food for the lobster cages.
According to lobster farmers in Van Ninh, for a long time now, the buying and selling of lobsters by people has been done through unofficial channels. That is, after being raised, lobsters will be sold by people to traders. Then from traders, they will be sold to businesses before being imported to China. Lobsters that want to enter this market therefore have to go through many stages...
The above mentioned connection in the links in the lobster chain is quite loose, just one broken link will affect the whole chain...
Why?
In recent years, the situation of spontaneous lobster farming has occurred massively in Khanh Hoa province in general and in Van Ninh district, Cam Ranh city in particular.
According to the report of Cam Ranh City People's Committee, the number of shrimp and fish cages in Cam Lap commune is about 10,007 cages (9,907 shrimp cages, 100 fish cages).
In Cam Ranh City alone, the government has mobilized and propagated people not to arbitrarily increase the number of cages and move cages into the 230-hectare aquaculture planning area in the east of Cam Lap commune.
However, due to the long-standing practice of raising lobsters in coastal cages by the people, and the economy of Cam Ranh people mainly being aquaculture, the 230ha planning is not enough to meet the farming needs of the city's people.
Mr. Le Ngoc Thach - Chairman of Cam Ranh City People's Committee affirmed that aquaculture (including lobster, fish, oysters) near shore is spontaneous farming and is not included in the coastal aquaculture planning area of Cam Ranh Bay as well as the general planning of Khanh Hoa province for the period 2021-2030.
According to Mr. Thach, currently, the Institute of Aquaculture Research III has a project to support livelihoods for people raising cages near the sea, change jobs, and arrange jobs for people.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, China accounts for 98-99% of Vietnam's lobster export market. In May 2023, China amended its law on wildlife protection, prohibiting the capture of animals on the endangered list issued in 2021.
Accordingly, farmed spiny lobsters exported to China must meet the following conditions: farmed spiny lobsters must not be caught directly from the sea, have clear evidence of the farming process, and the offspring must be of the F2 generation.
In addition, importers must apply for a "Wildlife Protection" license from the Fisheries Bureau (Ministry of Agriculture of China)...
Immediately after your side changed its lobster purchasing policy, Vietnam is currently reviewing and providing instructions for people and businesses to implement.
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