HCMC – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has announced to set aside VND350 billion to grow national-standard basa and tra fish breeds in the Mekong Delta during the 2010-2012 period.

The sum will be spent on farming 100,000 tra and basa breeder fishes to provide around five billion standard breeds for the region, said Vu Van Dung, head of the Aquaculture Department under the ministry.

Although these two types of local catfish are expected to be major products of the seafood export industry in the future, Vietnam has not developed standards for breed production.

The Research Institute for Aquaculture No. 2 is setting up national standards for the fish breeds in the country. The institute is also carrying out breed production and plans to transfer 100,000 breeder fish to local farms in 2011 and 2012, said Nguyen Van Sang, deputy head of the institute.

“The project aims to ensure healthy reproduction of fish breeds, raise breed quality and help seafood processing factories trace origins of the products to meet criteria of international importers,” Sang said.

Before the institute transfers breeds to the farms, the ministry will finance Dong Thap, An Giang, Tien Giang, Bac Lieu and Vinh Long provinces to develop infrastructure and human resources to build standard breed production farms, Dung of the ministry added.