Export met difficulties, lobster prices fall

Low lobster prices, struggling in consumption

These days in Cam Binh island commune, Cam Ranh city, where blue lobsters are raised mainly in Khanh Hoa, farmers are on tenterhooks when commercial lobster prices decrease continuously.

Mr. Lam Anh Tuan, Chairman of Cam Binh Commune Farmers' Association, said that the whole commune currently has over 20,000 cages for raising lobsters. Before the Lunar New Year, the price of blue lobster purchased ranges from VND920 - 970 thousand/kg, after Tet the price dropped to VND820 - 850 thousand/kg. At this price, farmers are still able to earn little profit. However, in recent months, the price of lobster has decreased continuously, currently remaining at VND620 - 670 thousand/kg (depending on the type), accompanied by the lack of buyers, or buyers purchasing in limited quantities.

According to Mr. Tuan, with the mentioned low price, farmers will suffer heavy losses because many lobsters cultured in this batch are lost, the seed and the price of lobster food have also increased. Specifically, if before, the price of lobster feed fluctuated from VND25,000 - 30,000/kg, now it has increased to VND60,000 - 65,000/kg, adding even more problems for farmers.

“Currently, many households that are unable to put up with the difficulties have to accept to sell the lobsters and suffer losses or luckily break even if the cost is little. But there are also many households holding on to lobsters raising to wait for an increase in prices", Mr. Tuan confided.

Mr. Le Van Hoa's family in Binh Ba Dong village (Cam Binh commune) raised a batch of 4,000 blue lobsters released in June last year, and even though they have now reached the selling weight (averaging about 3 lobsters/kg) he is still hesitant to sell them.

“This batch of lobsters has a seed price of up to VND55-58 thousand/lobster, nearly double that of previous generations. But during the rearing process, the lobsters suffer from milk disease(body rot) possibly due to unfavorable water, causing a lot of loss. It seems that every farming household also suffered losses. My family raised this batch of lobsters and lost over 700 lobsters. Making sell at the current price of VND 670,000/kg will surely lose us money" Mr. Hoa explained his hesitation in selling the lobsters.

Not only the green lobster but also the ornate rock lobster (star lobster) has also dropped sharply in price recently. According to Mr. Tran Minh Hien, an ornate rock lobster farmer in Khai Luong village, Van Thanh commune (Van Ninh district), the current price of grade 1 cotton lobster (1 kg/lobster) ranges from VND1.3 - 1.4 million/kg, while grade 2 lobster(0.72 - 1 kg/lobster) and grade 3 (0.55 - 0.7 kg/lobster) range from VND900,000 - 1,000,000/kg. While before the Lunar New Year, the price of grade 1 lobster reached up to VND2.1 million/kg, and grade 2 and 3 lobsters ranged from VND1.5 - 1.7 million/kg.

"With the current low lobster price, along with the high rate of loss in raising from 20-30%, even some households suffered a loss of up to 50%, making sell will guarantee heavy loss in revenue", Mr. Hien said and also explained that the cause of lobster loss was the milk disease. For example, Mr. Hien's family released a batch of 2,000 ornate rock lobsters, now the shrimp have reached the size of grade 2 and 3. But due to the milk disease, every day there is a loss of 7-10 lobsters, in some days, the loss reaches up to 10-20 lobsters. The family faced many difficulties with the low price of lobsters and the rare appearance of buyers.

The need for planned lobster raising 

According to Khanh Hoa Department of Fisheries, the province currently has more than 60,000 cages for lobster farming, including blue lobster and ornate rock lobster, with an output of about 1,300 tons/year. 

Mr. Vo Khac En, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Fisheries said that lobster is currently mainly exported to the Chinese market and a small amount is consumed domestically serving tourists. However, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, China implemented the "Zero Covid-19" policy, making the export of agricultural and aquatic products, including lobsters, difficult to reach this market. As a consequence, lobsters saw less purchase, causing the price to drop sharply. Meanwhile, domestic tourism has yet to fully recover, creating little consumption for lobsters.

commercial lobsters in the coming time and the fluctuation of prices, the Department recommends that farmers need to closely monitor the market's developments, raising and farming at a reasonable density and in accordance with the planning, under full registration and declaration with the management agency.

These are important bases in traceability and quality assurance to bring lobster to the official export market in order to stabilize output for lobsters. Authorities and local authorities will continue to support the connection, finding outputs for lobsters in the area.

In the long run, to sustainably export lobster, according to Mr. En, it is necessary to shift to the official export route. To achieve this, in addition to farming in accordance with the planning, under registration and full declaration with the management agency as mentioned, farmers also need to focus on meeting strict standards of product quality, origin traceability according to market requirements.

According to Mr. Vo Khac En, in order to develop a sustainable lobster industry, the Department of Fisheries will continue to guide farmers to work in accordance with the provincial planning and fully register and declare with the management agency. At the same time, applying a biosafety farming process and clear traceability. Guiding farmers to establish cooperative groups or cooperatives to form a chain of links with businesses, from supplying inputs to consumption for outputs.