Meeting the challenges in Vietnam’s shrimp farming industry in 2022

Optimism at the beginning of the year was dampened by diseases, led by EHP outbreaks from April onwards

In a joint presentation during TARS 2022 Aquafeeds: A New Equilibrium, Dr Olivier Decamp, Group Technical Marketing Product Director and Nguyen Van Khanh, Head of Technical Service and Sales, Grobest, reviewed some challenges in Vietnam’s shrimp industry in 2022. Since the event was held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, in October, Vietnam was chosen to showcase how the aquafeed industry supports farmers to achieve higher profitability.

Production up to August 2022

Vietnam aimed to achieve the USD4 billion target in exports in 2022. At the beginning of the year, there were already good deliverables as shrimp exports were on the rise compared to the same period in 2021 (Figure 1). “However, starting from April, we began to hear of some reports in the press that seafood exporters expected challenges in getting raw materials in the second half of 2022,” said Decamp adding, “We wondered how production would evolve!”

Figure tonnes: Comparison of monthly volumes from January to August 2021 and 2022 and YTD to August 2021 and 2022.

There are some indicators to explain production trends. These include broodstock importation, post larvae sales and stocking percentage. Figure 2 shows the trend in post larvae (million PL) sold from central Vietnam, where around 30% of the overall post larvae supply comes from. “Since January 2022, monthly sales have been down by as much as 25% compared to 2021. This indicated that something was going on at the farm level.”

“In the Mekong Delta, rain volume and patterns were very challenging for farmers. In several leading production areas in the Mekong Delta (Soc Trang, Ca Mau and Bac Lieu), there was excessive rain in peak production months, i.e., June and July, compared to 2021,” said Olivier Decamp.