Billionaire fish in the acid sulfate soil area

From Kien Binh commune, following the working group of the Provincial Farmers’ Association, we went by car to Mr. Nguyen Tuan Em’s fish breeding farm. Here, engineers are carrying out the process of fish breeding, providing freshwater fish fry such as perch, yellow catfish, striped snakehead fish, and egg-eating gourami fish… for key fish farming areas in and outside the province.

Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Kien Giang Province Do Tran Thinh (left cover) visits the yellow catfish farming area of ​​Mr. Nguyen Tuan Em (second from left).

“This year, Ca Mau province and Can Tho city have strong demand for fingerlings, so the farm has increased its operating capacity to meet orders. As for the egg-eating fish, this is the first year I have raised them for meat, so I am looking for a large-scale consumer,” said Mr. Tuan Em.

Born into a poor farming family, after finishing 8th grade, Tuan Em had to drop out of school to work for hire at fish farms. From there, Tuan Em accumulated knowledge and experience in fish seed production.

After working for hire and earning some capital, Mr. Tuan Em decided to go to Cong Tre hamlet, Kien Binh commune to buy land to build a fish breeding farm. Overcoming the initial difficulties in the new land, in addition to selling fish breeding, Mr. Tuan Em now raises freshwater fish for meat, with an annual output of 700-900 tons of various types of fish, and after deducting expenses, he earns a profit of billions of VND per year.

According to Mr. Tuan Em, the fish raised in the Long Xuyen quadrangle are firm, do not smell fishy and do not lose their slime when transported long distances. This is also the reason why he chose this land to start a business.

Mr. Nguyen Tuan Em (left cover) introduces the fish seed production process.

Mr. Tuan Em said: “This area is heavily contaminated with alum, the first 2 years I raised slot fish, I lost everything. After that, I had to find a way to treat the alum before deciding what to raise next, what to plant. After scooping out the pond, I had to add water to treat the alum at the bottom and immediately release the fish, otherwise it would be contaminated in just a few days, I had to start over from scratch, which was very costly and difficult.”

To prevent the water in the fish pond from leaking alum, Mr. Tuan Em keeps the water level higher than the outside to create pressure to push the alum out.

For farmers, the consumption stage is always a difficult problem and for Mr. Tuan Em, it is no exception. To sell fish in large quantities at reasonable prices, Mr. Tuan Em uses trucks to transport fish to Cambodia and Binh Dien wholesale market (Ho Chi Minh City) for consumption. After delivery, the customer will transfer the payment to his bank account.

The folk saying “If you want to be rich, raise fish, if you want to be well-off, raise pigs” is probably true in the case of Mr. Tuan Em. However, to have the property and income like today, the hardships that this 44-year-old man has gone through are not few, especially during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and early 2024.

With a total area of ​​47 hectares, Mr. Tuan Em and his wife use 12 hectares to produce Japanese rice and ST25 rice. The remaining area, the couple scoops up squares to raise freshwater fish, and grows jackfruit, pineapple, plum, mango... on the beds. With the idea of ​​forming an eco-resort, combining the experience of freshwater fishing to serve tourists, Mr. Tuan Em personally sawed wood to make a cool wooden house with 6 rooms that are about to be completed.

Even though he has a lot of money, Mr. Tuan Em still drives Kobe every day to scoop up squares and reinforce the dikes to raise fish like the day he first came to this land to start a business.

Article and photos: AN LAM

Source: https://www.baokiengiang.vn/kinh-te/ty-phu-ca-dong-vung-dat-phen-24949.html