Biển Đông Seafood Company builds the organic pangasius farm

Biển Đông Seafood Co., Ltd is one of two companies in the Mekong Delta exporting the most pangasius to the US market. Its pangasius products meet the standards of food hygiene and safety because the company strictly follow the regulated process of farming for the whole farm of hundreds of hectares.

Forming the fishing farm

Biển Đông Seafood Company has started the pangasius farm of 100 hectares along the Hậu river of Thốt Nốt district, Cần Thơ city to Sóc Trăng and Trà Vinh since 2005. It has three seafood processing factories with total capacity of around 1,000 tons of raw material fish per day.

During peak season, the material fish farm operates 40-50% of the factory’s capacity. Hence, the company has to cooperate with the contracted pangasius households who own around 200 hectares upon the satisfaction of food hygiene and safety conditions.

90 percent of the company’s seafood products are exported to the US and the rest is sold to other countries. The US requires high standards of farming, taking care, harvesting, processing and product completing and recognizes Biển Đông’s pangasius farms to be analogous to the US’s. Moreover, the company’s products satisfy the requirement of traceability with specific and transparent farm codes, helping the contracted households control the quality of material pangasius better.

The company assigns a seafood technician to oversee the technical matter of every 10 hectares of farm, three employees to check and handle the water quality and feed the pangasius twice a day on every hectare of farm. The contracted households are provided with feed by the company. The company sends its technician to check the water quality of the growing farm. If the farm is not polluted, it will be proceeded for fish farming. The households commit to provide healthy fish fries with good quality and self-control the process of farming and harvesting to follow the standards of food hygiene and safety. Sample is taken for testing before the harvest to assure no intake of residue antibiotics and prohibited chemical substances. The company will refuse to purchase the households’ pangasius if any breach is found out.

Synchronous technical process

The Head of the Quality office of Biển Đông Seafood Company Nguyễn Đức Trung said the pangasius farm apply the technical process recorded in the logbook, from the management program of fish fries, water, feed, diseases to biological security, cross-contamination prevention, harvest and post-harvest.

Since 2011, Biển Đông Seafood Company hired the 15 hectare-farm in the Trường Thọ area of Tân Lộc ward, Thốt Nốt district, Cần Thơ city to build a pangasius facility that meets the requirements of GlobalGAP, BAP and ASC schemes. The company has a Lab to check and monitor the health of farmed fish and supervise the water quality.

With the synchronous farming techniques in the material pangasius ponds, the company is proactive in producing and controlling the fish fry quantity provided to its own farming area. The stocking density of the company’s high-quality fish farm is 45 pcs/ m² with productivity of 30-40 kg commercial pangasius/m². The farms that meet the food hygiene and safety requirements and stocks 60 pcs/m² produce higher output.