Western giants raise thousands of ‘strange fish’, earning several billion dong a year

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Mr. Le Van Dung (60 years old, living in hamlet 3, An Phong commune, Thanh Binh district, Dong Thap province) is considered the most successful carp breeder in the West. He is known as “crispy carp billionaire” in Dong Thap.

Mr. Dung said, he has decades of experience with fish farming on the Tien River. Previously, his family raised pangasius in Phu Thuan A commune, Hong Ngu district. From a young age, he followed his father and grandfather to fetch fingerlings from the river to sell. Fish farming was in his blood.

“Since the catfish was artificially reproduced, farmers rushed to make the price in the market unstable. After many years of farming pangasius at a loss, I decided to learn and switch to other fish such as goby, persimmon … “, Mr. Dung said.

Around the end of 1990, Mr. Nam Dung built rafts and experimented with gobies. Due to lack of experience, the stocked fingerlings died and lost a lot. At that time, many people said he was “crazy”.

However, in the first batch of gobies, Mr. Dung obtained 1 ton of commercial fish, with a high selling price, so he was still profitable. In the following years, Mr. Dung continued to raise gobies, and at the same time tinkered with new varieties of fish to stock. In which, Mr. Dung once “won big” when raising red tilapia.

Mr. Le Van Dung – “crispy carp billionaire” in Dong Thap

Crispy carp Mr. Dung raised on the Tien River

In the first months, fish are fed industrial food

“I have a predestined relationship to raise and succeed with specialty fish such as pompano, persimmon. When people are busy farming those types of fish, causing the market to saturate, the chorus of ‘good harvest’ occurs continuously. Wanting to get out of that vicious circle, I try to find new and strange fish to raise,” he shared.

During a trip to the North, Mr. Dung happened to be introduced by a friend in Hai Duong province to the model of raising crispy carp, which is popular in the market and has a high selling price.

“In 2011, after researching, I realized that in Dong Thap it was possible to raise crispy carp, so I decided to buy 6,000 fingerlings to try on rafts. After that, I saw very good results, so I decided to expand the farming area for this fish,” Dung said.

By 2014, he realized that the water source in Cai Vung river area (Hong Ngu district) was no longer suitable, so he decided to move the raft of crispy carp to the Tien River, which flows through An Phong commune, Thanh Binh district to feed them. now.

Mr. Dung said that, in the early days, crispy carp was a very strange fish to people in the West, so finding a consumer market was difficult.

“I have to ride a motorbike, carry two baskets of crispy carp around the restaurants and eateries in Dong Thap, An Giang to introduce. I had to give some crispy carp for them to try. I even went to the kitchen to prepare dishes from crispy carp and introduce them to guests,” Mr. Dung said.

Fish that weigh about 1.5kg will be fed lentils

Thanks to the tough, crispy and delicious fish meat, Mr. Dung’s crispy carp was accepted by the market. After that, many traders came to his raft to buy fish. At the time when carp is crispy, the price is soaring from 200,000 to 220,000 VND/kg.

According to Mr. Dung, crispy carp is actually a type of carp usually, common, normal. “Carp seed is only as small as the tip of the foot of incense, I bought it and nursed it in the pond. When the right size is reached, stock it in the raft. In the period from 4-6 months, fish are fed industrial food, when reaching a weight of about 1.5 kg/fish, they are transferred to another raft and fed with lentils until harvest.

Beans are rich in protein, rich in starch and low in fat, so it will help the fish meat to be tough and crunchy, very delicious, “said Mr. Dung.

Before feeding fish, broad beans must be soaked for about 24 hours, large seeds must be cut in half. “In the past, I bought Chinese broad beans for about 25,000 VND/kg, recently, I have switched to buying silk beans from Australia at a much cheaper price, under 15,000 VND/kg. The beans are put in a barrel, submerged under the water so that the fish can eat themselves.

“The joy of crispy carp is that it is easy to raise, has fewer diseases and especially fast growth, good efficiency, high cost and has never been stagnant,” he confided.

Currently, every year Mr. Dung sells about 200 tons of crispy carp to the market. With the price from 80,000-100,000 VND/kg, he earned several billion VND.

“The market for my crispy carp is everywhere, from the Mekong Delta to Ho Chi Minh City, even to the Central region,” said Mr. Dung, who wants to link up with businesses to bring Dong crispy carp. Tower to foreign market.

Crispy carp without scales, also known as pearl chain fish

Mr. Dung’s crispy carp is sold in the West, Ho Chi Minh City, Central

Mr. Dung wants to export crispy carp abroad

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