Aquaculture Thrives in Vietnam
March 19, 2010Thursday was feed and aquaculture day here in Vietnam for the I-LEAD class. We started off the day with a tour of the Green Feed Company, which produces thousands of tons of feed for pork, poultry, and aquaculture each year. Green Feed is one of the top 10 largest feed mills in Vietnam, and the company sources ingredients from the United States, India, South America, and Europe. They use cassava, rice bran, corn, DDGs, soybean meal, wheat, coconut meal, fishmeal and more.
The company is growing and expects its feed production to increase 15% a year. We saw some sites OSHA wouldn’t approve of, including barefoot guys with no shirts loading feed bags in the feed mill. These workers make about $80 to $100 a month.
Next we headed out for a boat tour on the Mekong River. We stopped at a fish farm that produces hybrid tilapia. It takes six months to raise a fish from the fingerling stage to about 1 kilogram, when the fish are marketed. The fish are sold live to the market. During our tour, the generous farmerers served us coconut juice from fresh coconuts!
Finally we toured the Vihn Quang Fish Processing Co., one of the largest traders of fish in Vietnam. Its main products are frozen cuttle fish, squid, and other seafood, including pangasius fish. The plant’s process is similar to a livestock harvesting facilty. The plant depends heavily on human labor, with a few hundred people processing fish in some of the rooms.
Today is Friday here in Vietnam, and we’re getting ready to head out to the Interflour Port. Talk to you soon!
I-LEAD Class IV
