Three-in-one economic development model of member Nguyen Thi Huong

The industry of modern fisheries is a sustainable and safer direction for Vietnamese fishermen. Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, member of TYM, center 24, in Tinh Gia, Thanh Hoa, is working with her family to develop their family’s economic model of shrimp farming and still retain their traditional fish sauce making career.

Previously, Huong’s family mainly engaged in buying seafood for fish sauce and processing seafood for processing plants. However, the seafood resources in the sea are becoming increasingly scarce, there are more and more seafood collectors, and especially the unpredictable change of weather has made her family difficult.

Recognizing that indoor shrimp farming can control the breeding area and disease, minimize the impact on the surrounding environment, for high and stable yields, Huong’s family decided to develop indoor shrimp farming model. Luckily, they have been trained by a skilled shrimp farmer to build effective tanks and shrimp production. From June 2017, Huong’s family started to build the first shrimp tank. Currently, her family has three indoor shrimp tank farms and a sea area with many small shrimp tanks. Each tank was designed only 25m ², height over 1m. On the aquarium, there are cone-shaped roof. She explained: “When shrimp tanks are protected with roofs, farmers can decide when to sell shrimp to the market. Each tank is equipped with aeration, drainage and drainage system separately. ” She said that the advantage of this model is that it is easy to control and treat the diseases of shrimp. Diseased shrimp can be isolated quickly, not afraid of being spread like farming in the sea. From the day of testing the new shrimp culture model, she never encountered big risks.

Alongside the new model of shrimp farming, Huong also makes the fish sauce to serve the needs of families and people in neighboring areas, and also to keep the tradition of the village. With the method of fish sauce making without preservatives, the fish sauce has its freshness and always ensures clean hygiene. As a result, the fish sauce of her family is very popular. Not only shrimp farming and fish sauce but her family also built a workshop producing dry jellyfish. The jellyfish product of her family is not only present in the shops and supermarkets in Vietnam but also exported to neighboring countries especially the Chinese market. With these three models, she has skillfully calculated to take the profit of this activity to support other activities. When making dry jellyfish is profitable, she takes interest to invest in shrimp farming, then takes the interest from the shrimp to invest in the construction of shrimp ponds and fish sauce. Gradually Mrs. Huong has three strong models today.

To become successful like today, the family borrowed TYM’s loans to build the first shrimp tank. During TYM’s 5 years of operation, TYM has contributed to all three economic models of her family: when buying jellyfish for processing, buying fish for fish sauce and then building shrimp tanks, buying food for shrimp. Although TYM has not lent Huong a big loan amount, but continuously, this helps her always keep stable and develop the scale of business and production. So far, her facilities have shrimp tanks equipped with water pipelines in and out of the sea, have a system of gas, a spacious workshop to ensure hygiene.

Fisheries depend greatly on nature. In the past, Huong’s family used to suffer from economic losses. Therefore, in 2017, Ms. Huong was assigned to participate in TYM’s training course on “Natural Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change Prevention”. This was the first time she had access to knowledge, information on prevention. For the first time, she was able to analyze the family risks that could be encountered in the event of a disaster, as well as guide the development of active disaster prevention not only for her family but also for the community. In that same year, she was preparing to build a shrimp tank and was advised by experts in the training course to build a shrimp pond in the sea with new material that is resistant and suitable for big waves and especially storms. However, when the storm No.10 (September 2017) swept the area of Thanh Hoa, the cage and jellyfish tank of the family built close to the sea breaking waves were damaged heavily. This motivated her to apply the knowledge learned in her production model. She understands that only by limiting the risks and preventing disasters, her family’s labor efforts will not be swept away by storms. 

Till now, as a mature member of TYM with effective economic model and job creation for female members, she continues to borrow from TYM. She said: “As for those who own business model like me, each loan is valuable. Moreover, TYM not only let members have the opportunities to borrow and save money, but also to improve their knowledge and skills on business and life issues. As for my neighbors and friends who have not participated in TYM, I still encourage them to join TYM so that we can grow together. “