MARINE FISH FARMING IN VIET NAM: CURRENT AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
Viet Nam has a long coastal line of 3,200 km, with a very large area of marine water. It is estimated that the Country has a total area of 1,000,000 km2 of exclusive economic zone of sea water where high potential development of marine fish farming. Cobia, Pompano, Grouper, Seabass are currently major farmed species with an annual total production of 60,000 tons (D-FISH, 2015). The production is far below the potential and demand of marine farmed products from both domestic and international markets.
The Country are very keen to develop marine fish aquaculture.The Government of Vietnam has approved strategies and master plan of marine fish farming by 2020, targeting an annual production of 200,000 tons, with average annual growth rate of 11.1%.
This paper presents current status of marine fish farming in VietNam, including cultured species, existing systems of farming, achievement of hatcheries and seed quality improvement. Lessons learnt from the last 15 year development of marine aquaculture in Viet Nam are also highlight in details. Major current constraints such as seed supply, commercial feed production, disease prevention, farm certification and financial issues for further development of the sector are discussed and approaches of technology and management are recommended to sustain the sector.