Freshwater fish farming tycoon in industrial province

Although Dong Nai is an industrial province, it has many advantages for developing aquaculture. With a 40-hectare fish breeding farm and a system of 166 fish rafts on the La Nga River (Phu Hoa Commune), Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, owner of Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm, has achieved significant success in the industry. His facility currently supplies around 2,000 tons of freshwater fish per year to major wholesale markets across provinces and cities nationwide.

Nguyen Ngoc Thanh, owner of Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm (Phu Hoa commune), introduces his family's raft fish farming area. Photo: B.Nguyen

In addition to raising common commercial species such as red tilapia and tilapia, Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm also produces fingerlings, together with cultivating a variety of high-value specialty fish, including snakehead, loach, eel, and several types of catfish, such as yellow catfish, spotted catfish, and pangasius krempfi.

Four generations of raft fish farming

Nguyen Ngoc Thanh shared: "My family has 4 generations involved in raft fish farming. Currently, my family has 5 siblings working in aquaculture. Following the family tradition, I also chose to study aquaculture and then returned to take over the family business."

Starting with just a few dozen fish rafts, Nguyen Ngoc Thanh has continuously expanded his operation to 166 rafts stretching 4 kilometers along the La Nga River. In addition to common freshwater species, he also cultivates high-value specialty fish with strong economic returns.

Nguyen Ngoc Thanh shared: "I was fortunate to receive a formal education, so in addition to inheriting the raft fish farming techniques passed down through generations in my family, I also apply modern science and technology to production. This technology isn’t anything too grand, as it starts with small improvements in the production process.

Specifically, I designed a sturdy system of fish rafts with wide railings to allow workers to move around more easily. I also installed shade nets over the rafts. In the feeding process, food must be spread slowly, divided into multiple rounds throughout the day, and adjusted based on the day’s weather. The shade net helps prevent the fish from experiencing heat shock or overexposure to sunlight when they surface to feed."

Thanh’s success in cultivating high-maintenance specialty fish is also thanks to the significant amount of time he has dedicated to research and learning.

According to Thanh, in the early days, he had to "pay a lot of tuition," having lost entire batches of farmed fish multiple times due to unsuitable feed or ineffective disease control. After about two years of experimentation, he finally developed a standardized farming process for these specialty fish. With each farming cycle, he documented the care procedures at each stage of growth, as well as disease management methods, to compile his own fish farming manual.

Due to large-scale raft fish farming, an average of hundreds of kilograms of fish died each day due to loss, which he previously sold to farmers for composting. But later, he utilized this fish source as raw material to process his own fish feed.

As a result, even during the rainy and flood season, when many raft fish farming areas on the La Nga River halt stocking, Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm is still able to maintain a stable year-round supply of farmed fish, ensuring uninterrupted distribution to the market.

Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm has invested in 3 trucks to transport fish to wholesale markets in: Dong Nai, Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Buon Ma Thuot... On average, the facility supplies about 2,000 tons of various commercial fish to the market each year. The facility also raises about 20 rafts of mudfish, 20 rafts of hemibagrus, 20 rafts of naked fish... Each of these specialty fish brings in several billion VND in profit per year.

Aspiration to produce high-quality fingerlings

From the early days of his startup in 2016, Thanh focused on investing in fingerling production. To date, he has expanded his fingerling farm to approximately 40 hectares, with a well-structured system of rearing ponds. His facility currently produces eight types of fingerlings, including carp, red tilapia, tilapia, striped catfish, yellow hemibagrus, bagrid catfish, loach, and others.

Thanh explained: When farmers buy floating fingerlings from the open market, they have no way of knowing the fish's disease history or what medications have been used. This challenge leads to significant risks, high rates of illness and mortality, and inconsistent fish sizes within a single batch.

By contrast, producing fingerlings on-site offers many advantages. Most importantly, farmers can monitor and treat pathogens from the very beginning, allowing the fingerlings to grow strong and healthy. Even if the disease occurs, it's easier to manage.

Notably, producing fingerlings locally means that when they are released into ponds, there’s no shock from sudden environmental changes. The fish adapt quickly and experience lower loss rates. Because the fingerlings are self-produced and carefully screened, each batch can be selected for uniform size, resulting in faster, more consistent growth. This endeavor is also why his farmed fish are of higher quality and typically sell for about 5,000 VND per kilogram more than the market average.

In addition, purchasing fingerlings from the market is highly unpredictable. When demand surges, fingerling prices are driven up, directly affecting farmers' profit margins. By producing their own fingerlings, breeders can stabilize production costs and proactively manage supply, allowing them to plan when to scale up stocking and increase output.

According to Thanh, investing in fingerling production is no easy task, as it requires substantial capital, large pond areas, and access to clean water sources. With its current hatchery scale, Phu Dien Fish Aquaculture Farm can produce up to 700 tons of various fingerlings annually. In the past, Thanh primarily imported fry to raise into fingerlings. He is now working on a project in collaboration with a major aquaculture enterprise to import broodstock and develop a fingerling production process using modern technology, aiming to expand the scale of high-quality fingerling output.

By Binh Nguyen – Translated by Mai Nga, Minho