Do Thi Tham, the chairwoman of Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative, said that her cooperative applied raising fish using the in-pond raceway aquaculture technology after she learned about it from the US company, Cargill, at a workshop in My Hao.

Taking advantage of the 10ha area owned by her family, Tham started to renovate the place and create small channels in a freshwater fishing pond following the instructions she was given. After four fish tanks were constructed using 600 million dong funded by My Hao district and Hung Yen province, Tham invested more money in 6 more fish tanks and established Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative in 2005 as a pioneer in new freshwater fish farming. The yield in the first year was nearly 100 tons of fish.

An employee of Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative builds gas pipeline system. The gas pipeline system is at the bottom of the fish tank. A close look of the in-pond raceway system.  A pump and gutter behind the fish tank collect fish waste, which is used for irrigation. The pump system build a river-like stream. Many experts come to visit Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative.

Vu Duy Hao, Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative’s technician who built the technical infrastructure to raise fish using the new technology, showed us the in-pond raceway system.

Hao said the new fish farming method is completely different from the traditional one. The 1.2m deep fish tank must be constructed with concrete and stainless-steel nets at the two ends to protect the fish because the stocking density is 10 times higher than that of conventional ponds. The pump system will continuously pump water into the tank and build a river-like stream in order to create a good habitat for the fish. The whole system of roads around the fishing ponds is also concretized to ensure that mud can’t be carried to pollute the water supply.

Red tilapia raised in the in-pond raceway system of Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative in Hoa Phong commune, My Hao district, Hung Yen. After five or six months, the farm can harvest commercial fish with a weight of between 0.8 and 1.6kg.  A red tilapia. Apart from red tilapia, the farm raises carp and grass carp.

The in-pond raceway system has helped reduce the cost of raising the fish and producing fish products with firm meat and no fishy odor. In addition to keeping the quality and stable sale prices, Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative controls fish feed purchased from the US, and strictly monitors the product’s quality from farming to sale.

Hoa Phong Seafood Cooperative now has 16 tanks for raising red tilapia, common carp and grass carp with a total annual output of 200 tons. It is the fish supplier of major supermarkets in Hanoi, including Big C and An Viet Market. The cooperative also provides fish products to other northern provinces and is a fish farming model for these provinces./.