“Currently, the market share of black tiger is 20% of the global shrimp market, which tells you there is a certain number of people who always prefer to have black tiger only,” noted the firm's chairman, Le Van Quang.
“If the price of black tiger and vannamei is not significantly different, the demand for black tiger will grow. I have a special interest in developing the production of black tiger, and I am determined to make the prices of these two types of shrimp become equal.”
In 2014 Min Phu produced 57,720 metric tons of shrimp. Production in 2015 is expected to be the same, but striving for this 50:50 split between vannamei and black tiger, he said.
In Vietnam, for 2015, the expected farming area is 700,000 hectares, with a total production of 700,000t, said Quang, citing the report of the Seafood General Department of the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture.
This compares to 2014's 676,000 ha, with a total production is 640,000t.
BlueYou, black tigers
In May 2015 consultancy BlueYou, which is running a 'Selva shrimp' branded project in conjunction with Minh Phu, told Undercurrent sales to the US had been increasing ever since the brand was awarded a Monterey Bay Aquarium 'best buy'.
“Since we started in 2010, Selva shrimp has been popular in Japan and Korea for its high quality,” said Urs Baumgartner, country manager for Vietnam at BlueYou Consulting. “But since November, with Seafood Watch describing us as the only safe buy for farmed black tiger, US interest has really picked up.”
“There are two companies waiting in the US now, with deliveries on the way out there,” he said, adding that US, and also EU, foodservice were growth areas for Selva.
The Selva program ties small-scale farmers in the Ca Mau mangrove region of Vietnam under a certification created by BlueYou, and Minh Phu partners with them to process the shrimp before sales to Asia, the EU and US.
However, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep) noted that in the first quarter of 2015, overall exports of black tiger were down in value terms by 32%, to $178 million.
Vannamei exports too were down by 30%, to $340m.
At the start of the year Vasep reported Vietnamese farmers had made a shift away from farming black tiger, to vannamei instead.
The major shrimp farming area, the Mekong Delta, saw vannamei farming increase in terms of area by 68% year-on-year, while production was estimated at 245,000t, up 53%.
Soc Trang and Ben Tre -- having the largest output -- did 66,400t and 42,200t, respectively, up 31% year on year.
Black tiger shrimp production in the delta in 2014 was down from the previous year. The farming area was estimated at 537,000 hectares, down 4% from 2013, while production was approximately 248,000t, down 3%.
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