Ca Mau Province is the sole place in the country that produces organic shrimp, and whose quality is certified by the German-based Association for Organic Agriculture and the Swiss-based Institute for Market Ecology (IMO). Every year local farmers export hundreds of tons of organic shrimp to hard-to please European markets, but demand still outstrips supply.

An organic shrimp farm in Ca Mau Province (Photo: nld.com.vn)

Nguyen Van Liem, one of the farmers of Farm 184 in Ca Mau Province, said, “To breed this kind of shrimp, my family must comply with strict and stringent breeding standards on organic shrimp farming set by Nature Land, a German organisation that promotes the production and consumption of organic food. Otherwise, we will be weeded out.”

Liem ‘s breeding farm lies under the vast shade of a green mangrove forest, which is required to cover over half of the total area of shrimp farm.

Shrimps living and growing in the shade of mangrove forests and a balanced ecosystem is one of many standards set for organic shrimp farming. This practice will not only help protect the forests, but also restore the ecosystem in the region.

Liem said, “We are not allowed to use antibiotics in breeding. Families in the region and neighboring areas must observe strict regulations on management of waste and waste water discharged from their daily activities to ensure that they will not affect the quality of fresh water to be used for breeding.”

Hua Ngoc Anh, another breeder, said, “IMO gives training on organic shrimp farming to us at least once a year, despite that we are certified breeders. They also check our farms three times a year.”

He added, “Thanks to such farming practice, we have so far never had a poor crop. We can reap in an annual income of up to hundreds of million of dong while we don’t have to pay for feed. The shrimps eat the decay of mangrove leaves soaked in the water, which is a good nutrient for various aqua species.”

Building the Ca Mau brand of organic shrimp

Discussing how organic shrimp production was brought into the world, Pham Ngoc Hung, supervisor of Farm 184 said, “A few years ago, a delegation from the Swiss Embassy in Vietnam were in Ca Mau on a [diplomatic] mission and taken by local authorities to the farm for a sightseeing tour. They were treated to shrimp, including tiger shrimp bred in ponds dug at the feet of mangrove trees.”

“They were all crazy with the flesh of shrimps, which they described as “tasting really good” and “more crunchy than shrimp bred in a conventional farms,” Hung added.

They then proposed that the Ministry of Fisheries help farmers in Ca Mau build up the brand for organic shrimp for export.

Once their proposal was accepted, IMO sent experts to Ca Mau to check if regional farms could meet basic standards set by Nature Land for organic shrimp production. They also checked the capability of the farm’s processing plant. After checking, only Farm 184 was qualified for such breeding.

Hung said,”We enjoy a year-on-year increase in production. We harvested only 17 tons a year in 2002, 131 tons in 2005, but the figure rose up to between 300 and 400 tons last year. The price of a kilo of organic shrimp is some 20 percent higher than that of shrimp bred in conventional farms.”

Dr. Nguyen Xuan Hong, deputy chairman of Ca Mau People’s Committee said, “We will focus on improving the quality of produce, so that we can make it more competitive via trade promotion activities in both international and domestic markets.”

He said that organic shrimp produce will open new markets for local farmers in the context that conventional shrimp production, which used to be the strength of Ca Mau, is now facing harsh competition from in and outside the country.

Thanks to the increase in demand for organic shrimp produce from European markets, Ca Mau’s authorities are outlining plans to build more farms in Ngoc Hien and Nam Can Districts.