Cargill seeks to support Vietnamese aquaculture development

Cargill is focusing on shrimp production with a new research and demonstration facility in Bac Lieu, the shrimp farming hub of Vietnam.

Photo: GettyImages/ UpPiJ

The Technology Application Center (TAC) facility, which opened at the end of April, is expected to provide support for aquaculture industry producers working with shrimp, said a Cargill spokesperson.

“Vietnam is an important and growing market for aquaculture, and a key market for Cargill both for fish and shrimp,”​ she told FeedNavigator.

The US agribusiness player has been operating in Vietnam for 23 years and has 11 manufacturing sites in the country.

The opening of a second TAC indicates the company’s interest in the market and the role it wants to play in the development of the Vietnamese aquaculture industry, it said. 

The new facility covers 1.2 hectares and includes 15 production ponds, a training facility and a research station.

The center is the third such site in Southeast Asia and the second for the company in Vietnam. Cargill already has a research and demonstration site in Tien Giang, Vietnam, and another in India.

“The TAC Cargill, opened in the Tien Giang province in 2017, focuses on fish – tilapia, snakehead, anabas, etc. – and such new species as frog,” ​she said. “With the new TAC in the Bac Lieu province, a shrimp farming hub in Vietnam, Cargill now has a facility focusing on shrimp.”​

Disease challenges​

The new TAC will have support from Cargill’s network of R&D innovation centers and the research done at other TAC locations across the region of Southeast Asia, said the company. 

The facility has been tasked with increasing the pace of product development while expanding the options for shrimp producers, said the spokesperson. It will also look to bring new feed technology from Cargill's global aquaculture innovation centers in the US, Norway and Chile to address the disease challenges Vietnamese farmers are facing.

“New farming techniques will be tried along with new innovative feeds to deliver more advanced shrimp farming,”​ she said.