Prices of agro and aqua products soar in Mekong Delta

April 22, 2011 | 16:00

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Prices of many agricultural and aqua products have surged in the Mekong Delta due to insufficient supplies.

Farmer in the Mekong Delta holding his shrimp catch

Nguyen Van Dao, general director of Go Dang Seafood Joint Stock Company in Tien Giang Province, said on April 21 that the price of tra catfish has set a new record.

Exporters have scrambled to buy the fish at an all-time high price of VND28, 300-28,500 per kilogram, he added.

However, Mr. Dao said, the volume of fish during harvesting was not much. Due to escalating input costs, farmers have not dared to breed more fish.

Due to the severe shortage, catfish exporters have been unable to take the initiative to sign export contracts, except those who have their own farms.

Ca Mau, Bac Lieu and Soc Trang provinces have continued to see a shortage of tiger shrimps, with prices continuing to rise.

These provinces have faced shrimp shortage because of widespread epidemic diseases in shrimps in the region.

One kilogram of shrimps loading about 20 pieces costs VND260,000-265,000 and one kilogram loading 30 pieces of shrimps costs VND190,000-200,000.

In Dong Thap and Tien Giang provinces, traders are boosting the purchase of rice with prices of VND8,200-8,250 per kilogram of five-percent-broken rice and VND8,100-8,150 per kilogram of 15-percent-broken rice.

Merchants have bought long-grain rice from farms at VND6,000 per kilogram and scented-rice at VND6,300 per kilogram.

Purchase of live pigs has also risen sharply in the region.

Besides local merchants who have bought pigs for daily local consumption, merchants from outside have rushed to the Mekong Delta to buy pigs for markets in Ho Chi Minh City and the northern and central provinces.