Find a way to overcome difficulties for the steel-hulled fishing ships

According to the Government's Decree No.67 in 2014 on some fisheries development policies, including the credit policy for building and upgrading fishing ships for fishermen, to modernize fishing ships, helping fishermen reach long days at sea.

The fishermen selected to receive preferential loan support under Decree No.67 are fishing ship owners with seniority in offshore fishing. However, in reality, nowadays, these fishing ship owners are at a loss of business. Some of them are in a situation empty, even giving up their possessions and running for people.

Visiting Song Doc Town, Tran Van Thoi District, Ca Mau Province, we happened to hear the story of Mr. Dip Hong Ky. Mr. Ky is one of the first fishermen in the province to own a steel-hulled fishing ship from the support policy of Decree No.67, spread his hands. He said: “Now I have nothing except empty hands”.

According to Mr. Ky, Decree No.67 has a lot of supportive policies that benefit fishermen, but under the impact of climate change and extreme weather, catches of fishery products are decreasing day by day.

Due to the low efficiency of exploitation, he had to bear additional labor costs, up to hundreds of millions of VND each month, the degraded fishing ships could not be repaired, so Mr. Ky was no longer able to repay the debt. Many months ago, the steel-hulled fishing ship had to be handed over to the bank.

“In the past, I had two ships, a large ship supported by Decree No.67, a small boat that I separated invested in. Due to inefficient exploitation, I had to sell the small boat to have the cost of maintaining the operation and repay the bank debt. I live in the coastal area with no capital to do anything else, now I rent a boat to go squid fishing and cover the family's living expenses,” Mr. Ky shared sadly.

Mr. Duong Minh Nhat, from Song Doc Town, 6 years ago, received support from Decree No.67 to build a new steel-hulled fishing vessel worth VND 9.8 billion. Due to the unstable market price, after each trip, the revenue of fishing ship owners like him is about VND 500 million, minus all expenses. He also earns from VND 70 to VND 100 million but now only breaks even, sometimes even at a loss.

Mr. Nhat confided that the current labor cost alone has nearly doubled compared to three years ago. Worry weighs heavily on fishermen who are receiving support under Decree No.67 when timely to repay bank loans is approaching.

According to the Ca Mau Province statistics, the whole province has 34 new and upgraded fishing ships according to Decree No.67 of the Government, with total loan support of more than VND 350 billion. However, only 8 fishing vessels paid their debts on time, the rest of the other fishing vessel owners faced difficulties, and even 4 ships were sued by banks and handed over their assets.

Particularly in Song Doc Town, Tran Van Thoi District, there are 26 vehicles invested following the above Decree, three of which have been sold because the owner of the steel-hulled fishing ship cannot repay the debt.

From the perspective of the local Government, Mr. Tran Quoc Lam, Chairman of the People's Committee of Song Doc Town, suggested that the banks should consider extending the repayment period for households invested under Decree No.67 or reducing the number of loan debt for each stage to create the condition for fishing boat owners have better repayment conditions.

On the government side, Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, Director of the Department of Capture Fisheries, said: To remove current difficulties and obstacles, limit losses and risks for people and lending banks, and ensure the effectiveness of promulgated policies, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has reported to the Government and coordinated with ministries, branches and localities to develop a draft decree amending and replacing Decree No.67.

The new Decree No.67 will be submitted to the Government by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in the second quarter of 2022.