Building a brand for hybrid carp from Lao Cai.

In recent years, along with the orientation of developing aquaculture towards high-quality, commercial products, the province's agricultural sector has focused on researching and selecting aquaculture breeds suitable for market demand. Thanks to these efforts, the Lao Cai hybrid carp breed has gradually affirmed its quality, built its own brand, and expanded to many provinces and cities nationwide.

Currently, the Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center produces and supplies more than 10 million aquatic animal seeds of various types annually, with hybrid carp being the main variety, accounting for about 70-80% of the total seed production. Not only does it meet the needs of aquaculture within the province, but this seed supply is also provided to many other localities such as Hai Phong, Hanoi, Phu Tho, Ninh Binh, Bac Ninh, Dong Thap, etc.

One of the long-time customers of the Lao Cai hybrid carp is the family of Mr. Nguyen Trung Tuu in Nam Sach commune, Hai Phong city. Currently, his family has about 12,000 m² of fish ponds and produces 500-600 tons of commercial crispy carp annually.

Mr. Tuu stated that previously, his family used fish fry from various production facilities in the former Hai Duong province. However, during the commercial farming process, these old fish varieties revealed many limitations such as slow growth rate, high egg production rate, poor disease resistance, prolonged time to produce crispy fish, and uneven crispness, only reaching about 85-90%. This increased investment costs and affected production efficiency.

“Since 2021, my family has been using the Lao Cai hybrid carp breed and has noticed many outstanding advantages. The fish grow quickly, have a high meat yield, good disease resistance, and consistent crispness, so the economic efficiency has increased significantly,” Mr. Tuu shared.

Achieving the current high-quality fish breed is the result of a meticulous research and breeding process by the technical staff of the Provincial Agricultural Seed Center. At the end of 2020, the center launched a scientific research project to develop a high-yielding, high-quality hybrid carp breed between Hungarian carp and Vietnam's V1 carp.

Accordingly, the center is conducting crossbreeding between Hungarian carp and V1 carp to reduce inbreeding, improve growth, and enhance the adaptability of the hybrids. To implement the project, the center has prepared a broodstock of Hungarian carp imported from reputable sources. For V1 carp, they are using a stock of fish currently being maintained at the Research Institute of Aquaculture I. One of the new aspects of the research process is that all qualified broodstock are assigned electronic identification numbers for management. This is a modern technique that helps monitor the crossbreeding method, manage the gene pool, and serve as a basis for selecting breeding stock for subsequent generations.

The rearing ponds, spawning tanks, incubation tanks, and auxiliary facilities are also invested in comprehensively, meeting the appropriate biological conditions for optimal fish growth and reproduction. The breeding process is applied using the cross-fertilization method, involving crossing V1 female fish with Hungarian male fish and vice versa.

After a period of research and selection, the Lao Cai hybrid carp has shown many outstanding advantages. The fish have a rapid growth rate, reaching a weight of 2-2.5 kg/fish after only 6-8 months of rearing, 2-2.5 times faster than previous carp varieties. Not only do they grow quickly, but the Lao Cai hybrid carp also have an attractive appearance, with a slender body, green back, and distinctive yellow fins and belly. Importantly, they have fewer eggs in their belly, resulting in a higher meat yield and better-tasting meat, making them popular in the market. This allows farmers to reduce rearing time, save on feed costs, and improve economic efficiency.

The Provincial Agricultural Seed Center currently maintains approximately 800 broodstock pairs with a total weight of over 5,000 kg. The broodstock is rigorously selected from the reserve stock based on various criteria such as appearance, color, growth rate, and disease resistance. Beyond simply supplying fingerlings, the Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center also regularly researches and improves seed quality to meet the increasingly high demands of the market.

Currently, the Lao Cai Agricultural Seed Center produces and supplies more than 10 million fingerlings of various types annually, including over 7 million hybrid carp fingerlings. Notably, more than half of the production is sold outside the province according to orders, demonstrating the increasing demand for this fish species in the market and affirming the brand of Lao Cai's aquatic seed products.

From a fish breed primarily serving the needs of the province, the Lao Cai hybrid carp is now gradually establishing its brand in markets outside the province. The fact that the product is chosen by many localities shows the quality and adaptability of the fish breed produced in Lao Cai. This is also the result of applying science and technology to production, contributing to increasing the economic value of the fisheries industry and increasing income for the people.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/tao-dung-thuong-brand-giong-ca-chep-lai-lao-cai-post900589.html