Ten years ago, Nguyen Hoang Vinh began breeding climbing perch (Anabas testudineus), known for its ability to "walk" out of water, in man-made ponds in rural Tan Hanh Ward in Bien Hoa City.
Nguyen Hoang Vinh once had a dream: he would raise fish and become a rich man.
Today, he has reached his goal, but, like many entrepreneurs, he wants more.
Known in southern Dong Nai Province as the King of Climbing Perch, Vinh plans to expand his business beyond local markets.
Ten years ago, he began breeding climbing perch (Anabas testudineus), known for its ability to "walk" out of water, in man-made ponds in rural Tan Hanh Ward in Bien Hoa City.
His earnings: about VND3 billion (US$154,000) a year.
"This fish is common in Viet Nam and I thought it could be raised outside the usual natural sources like ponds and rice paddies," Vinh said, who has six ponds on a four-ha area.
Because industrial feed is used, the climbing perch grow even faster than they do in the natural environment.
Many farmers in the province who have followed Vinhs model have become well-off, earning around VND30-50 million ($1,540-2,560) per tonne from buyers from HCM Citys Binh Dien Wholesale Market.
Because the quantity of climbing perch in the country is declining in natural ponds, traders have urged the farmers to expand their ponds.
Vinh said the fish were easy to breed and raise, with five to seven adult fish producing about 60,000 eggs.
In June, he and 10 other farmers who raise climbing perch in Tan Hanh Ward created a cooperative whose members raise the fish on a total area of eight ha.
Their model has encouraged other farmers to develop cooperatives that will help them take advantage of local and foreign markets.
Another farmer, Vu Xuan Viet in the provinces Xuan Loc District, earns around VND2 billion ($103,000) a year on eight ha of ponds.
The aim of the cooperatives is to enhance each farmers earnings, explained Vinh, adding that they were unlike the cooperatives in the past, which shared earnings.
Vinh and the citys economic division are currently creating a brandname and trademark for the fish, which will be submitted to the provinces Department of Science and Technology for approval.
"The trademark will help my plan to export the fish," Vinh said.
Earlier this year, he and other farmers began breeding what is informally known as square-headed climbing perch, a variety which was discovered last year in a fish pond in Hau Giang, Tien Giang and Dong Nai provinces in the Mekong Delta.
During a recent exhibition fair in Bien Hoa City, many attendees expressed interest in buying the new variety, which sells for VND55,000 per kilo in the retail market.
"I do hope to export these because this variety grows faster than the other climbing perch and has better-tasting flesh," he said. "Ive already contacted several partners in Thailand and Malaysia."
(Source: VNS)
