Earn billions from ecological shrimp and crab

The woman, originally from Dam Doi district, had worked for a Korean company for 15 years, with a salary of over 30 million VND per month. In 2014, Trang gave birth and returned to her hometown to rest. During this time, she met many rural women, wondering how to help them earn income from local products. Nam Can has long been considered the crab capital of Ca Mau, and its products are popular in many domestic and foreign markets.

“When I had children, I also paid more attention to food quality. Through research, I found that the crab and shrimp products available were not as delicious as those in my hometown,” said Trang, adding that this was the motivation for her decision to quit her job and open a production facility in Tam Giang commune with dozens of workers.

The first product she started producing was dried freshwater shrimp. Freshwater shrimp is a type of aquatic product that lives naturally and has not been industrially farmed, so the meat quality is superior to other types. Taking advantage of that advantage, Trang focused on preserving the original flavor and investing in packaging. The first packages of dried shrimp she sold to her friends in Ho Chi Minh City to try, everyone praised the deliciousness and continuously placed orders.

In addition to dried shrimp, Ms. Trang found a way to separate frozen crab meat to sell to customers who do not have time. After more than a year of experimenting, researching, and testing dozens of samples, she finally came up with a satisfactory product. She brought the crab meat samples for testing to ensure quality, ready to serve demanding groups of customers.

“Everyone thinks that separating crab meat is not difficult, but the problem is how to maintain the quality of the meat for a long time to sell to customers far away,” said Ms. Trang, adding that the facility always uses crabs raised naturally from affiliated farms. People catch them by fishing and setting traps according to the tide.

Talking about the process of producing one kilogram of pre-separated crab meat, Ms. Trang said that it is a closed process from the stage of importing raw materials to packaging the finished product. When importing goods, the owner of the facility chooses live crabs with firm meat, measuring 200-450 grams for processing. The crabs are cleaned, pre-processed, refrigerated, and packaged by workers.

“After being separated by workers, the crab meat must be checked twice before being packaged to avoid sticking to the shell, which is dangerous for consumers,” said Ms. Trang. On average, one kilogram of live crab produces 90-120 grams of meat, depending on the time of harvest.

The facility produces 4 different types of crab meat with quantities ranging from 150 grams to 1 kilogram, selling for 1.3-1.6 million VND per kilogram. Currently, Ms. Trang’s facility supplies crab meat to more than 20 customers, including restaurants, eateries, and production chains nationwide.

In addition to organic crab meat, Ms. Trang also produces dried shrimp, crab crackers, shrimp crackers, frozen organic shrimp… The total monthly revenue of the facility reaches 3-4 billion VND, with a profit of about 300 million VND. Her production facility is always busy every day to produce and supply to customers.

To be proactive in production, Ms. Trang established a cooperative, linking with more than 400 local farming households to supply raw materials. “My biggest wish is that every farmer must get rich on his own land, with local strengths,” Ms. Trang said.

Mr. Huynh Tiet Giao, Vice Chairman of Tam Giang Commune People’s Committee, said that the locality regularly propagates and guides people to participate in training courses on ecological shrimp and crab farming, in an organic direction, providing quality raw materials for the cooperative. The development orientation of the cooperative helps farmers not worry about product output, and have a stable income.

Cheers Ly