At the age of 57, Mr. Thuyen borrowed a billion dong to renovate ponds, and lagoons, build shelters, and start a shrimp business by renovating. Every year, this farmer earns billions of dong.

Walking quickly around the pond, swinging a handful of flour to feed the shrimp, Mr. Ma Van Thuyen’s shirt (village 6 Thanh Lang, Nga Thach commune, Nga Son district, Thanh Hoa province) was drenched in sweat.

Belonging to extensive shrimp farming since the age of 30, Mr. Thuyen understands more than anyone the difficulties with this profession.

Mr. Ma Van Thuyen, from Thanh Lang hamlet, Nga Thach commune, succeeded with an industrial shrimp farming model (Photo: Hanh Linh).

Mr. Thuyen recalled, in 2012, the shrimp crop, which was about to be harvested, suddenly encountered a big storm. The family’s shrimp field suddenly became a vast sea of ​​water. Money and property drift along the great currents.

Then there was a time, after releasing a whole weight of shrimp seed for a few days, the water source turned black, smelled bad, his whole family took turns begging, changing the water for the shrimp still could not be saved. Shrimp died white, floating.

Tasting enough risks with extensive shrimp farming, not wanting to depend on the weather forever, in 2020, at the age of 57, Mr. Thuyen decided to “play big”. He hired machines and workers to renovate 5 hectares of ponds and lagoons from the Commune People’s Committee to convert to industrial shrimp farming.

The industrial shrimp farming model creates jobs for 7 family members (Photo: Hanh Linh).

Starting a business with a new way of doing things at the age of nearly 60 is full of risks, many people say that Mr. Thuyen is reckless. Because at this age, few people dare to bet with shrimp, a species that is difficult to raise and sick easily.

But Mr. Thuyen is very determined. He said, extensive shrimp farming can be done every year, no year, low investment cost, high risk. Investing in industrial shrimp farming is expensive, but it takes a lot of risk to have a chance to change your life.

With the industrial shrimp farming model, Mr. Thuyen is no longer dependent on the weather and climate (Photo: Hanh Linh).

Mr. Thuyen said, after 3 years of starting to make industrial shrimp, the family has invested nearly 2 billion VND for more than 10 farming ponds. When using all available capital, lack of money to buy food, import seeds and places to borrow money, Mr. Thuyen borrowed. Being informed by the Commune Farmers’ Union staff about loans for job creation from the Social Policy Bank of Nga Son district, Mr. Thuyen boldly applied for a loan of 100 million dong.

Having money to import seed, in March 2022, he started the first shrimp crop. Cultivation lasts 4 months to harvest.

“Last year, I raised 2 litters, after selling, deducting all expenses, the family earned more than 800 million dong”, Mr. Thuyen said.

The second batch of shrimp in the year of Mr. Thuyen’s family is growing day by day, promising a bumper shrimp crop (Photo: Hanh Linh).

In 2023, Mr. Thuyen’s family harvested a batch of shrimp with a profit of more than 300 million VND. The second batch has just been stocked for more than a month. According to Mr. Thuyen, if ponds and lagoons are good, farmers can raise 3 batches of shrimp per year.

With 30 years of experience in shrimp farming, according to Mr. Thuyen, whether farming extensively or industrially, farmers are always worried about diseases, shrimp are easy to die in mass. Therefore, in addition to farming experience, it is necessary to cultivate more professional knowledge about aquaculture.

According to Mr. Thuyen, shrimp farming has never had to worry about dead shrimp. At each harvest, traders come to the place to buy, harvest to where they are, and sell them all there.

The price of shrimp depends on the size, big and small. At the moment, 40 shrimp/kg is priced at 180,000 VND; 30 pieces/kg are priced at 200,000 VND. On holidays and Tet, the price of shrimp each type increases by 20,000-40,000 VND/kg.

Mr. Thuyen’s industrial shrimp farming model is invested in a very large and methodical manner (Photo: Hanh Linh).

To take care of shrimp ponds, Mr. Thuyen is maintaining 7 main employees who are family members. At harvest time, he hired 10 more seasonal workers. Each seasonal worker is paid 280,000-300,000 VND/day.($1=24,000 VND)

Mr. Ma Van Chi, Vice Chairman of Farmers’ Association of Nga Thach Commune, said that there are dozens of industrial-oriented shrimp farming models in the area. Houses have a few hectares of ponds, many houses 5-6 hectares. For small farmers, they earn a few hundred million dong a year, while large households have billions of dollars in hand.

“Most of the households here borrow capital from the district social policy bank to invest in animal husbandry, in which shrimp farming is the main. The development of industrial shrimp farming with high technology application not only changes the focus Traditional shrimp farms, many risks but also create jobs, bring stable income for local people, “said Mr. Chi.

Photo: Internet (Vinlove.net)