HCM City (VNA) - Dong Thap province,already the largest tra fishproducer in the Mekong Delta, has further increased the breeding area this yearbecause of the high prices the fish is fetching.

The area has increased by 20 percent to 1,381ha, including 200ha of newponds.

The price of the fish at the pond has risen by 5,000-6,000 VND perkilogramme since last year to 28,000-30,000VND (1.2- 1.3 USD), fetching farmerslarge profits.

So far this year nearly 300ha of tra ponds have been harvested, with output being more than 100,000 tonnes, upnearly 5 percent year-on-year, according to the Dong Thap FisheriesSub-department.

Le Hoang Vu, head of the sub-department, said the province is developinga model of tra farming based oncontracts between farmers and processors.

Under the contracts they sign, farmers do not worry about workingcapital or selling their output because the processors provide them with fishfeed and farming techniques.

In more than 60 percent of the breeding areas farmers have adoptedquality standards such as global GAP or VietGAP.

Most tra processors inthe province either manage to sign deals or have their own breeding areas tosecure more than 60 percent of their raw fish supply.

The prices of the fish are expected to remain high because export demandremains high while output has not increased much.

With tra fetching highprices, many farmers in Dong Thap are digging ponds even in unzoned areas tobreed the fish.

Tan Hong district and Hong Ngu town have 43ha and 18ha of new ponds inunzoned areas.

Nguyen Van Hoang, a local in Tan Phuoc commune, said the selling ofpaddy fields for turning them into tra ponds has gathered pace in the last two months.

Nguyen Thanh Tuan, Vice Chairman of the Tan Phuoc commune People’sCommittee, said competent agencies have been ordered to work with farmers tostop the digging of tra fishponds in unzoned areas.

People continuing to dig in unauthorised areas would be reported to thedistrict’s People’s Committee, he warned.-VNA