Quang Yen: Urgently converting styrofoam in aquaculture

Only 2 more months until the deadline to complete the conversion of foam floats to standard plastic floats in aquaculture according to the policy of the province, but so far, Quang Yen town has only replaced nearly 1/ 3 total foam floats. Currently, the locality is sprinting, removing difficulties, checking, handling and integrating propaganda to each aquaculture household in order to speed up the process of removing foam floats...

Many households raising oysters and hares in Lach Tuong area, Hoang Tan commune (Quang Yen town) have not yet converted foam floats to standard-compliant plastic floats.

Lien Hoa commune is one of the two localities with the largest number of aquaculture households in Quang Yen town. Currently, the whole commune has 263 aquaculture rafts (mainly ha ha) equivalent to 63,000 buoys that need to be replaced. From 2020 to now, the locality has actively propagated and guided households to gradually replace and convert foam buoy materials to environmentally friendly floating materials. However, the removal of foam floats in the area has not yet reached the desired progress. According to the review of the People's Committee of Lien Hoa Commune, up to now, only 10/26 households have converted from foam floats to standard plastic floats. The number of buoys changed was more than 16,500, equal to 26% of the total number of foam buoys.

Mr. Le Duc Do, Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Lien Hoa Commune, said: The roadmap is to be completed by the end of 2022, the locality must complete the conversion of foam floats to standard plastic floats, but so far the implementation process in the local area faced many difficulties. The main reason is that they have not found suitable suppliers of standard-compliant buoys, and the high cost of some standard-compliant floats makes it difficult for households to access.

At this time, aquaculture households are preparing to harvest ha, so it is difficult to move rafts instead. Meanwhile, the consumption is slow, the purchasing price is low, so many farming households have not been able to arrange enough capital for conversion. The difficulty is that, but from now until the end of 2022, the locality will drastically coordinate with the authorities to focus on solving difficulties; inspect, review and mobilize the remaining households to complete the conversion of foam floats to standard-compliant plastic floats according to the committed schedule.

According to the provincial roadmap, by the end of 2022, localities will complete the arrangement of concentrated marine farming areas according to the planning, and at the same time replace the floating materials used in environmentally friendly marine aquaculture. However, when deployed like Lien Hoa commune, currently, localities in Quang Yen town are facing similar difficulties, leading to the progress of converting foam floats to standard-compliant plastic floats in the locality. slowed.

Up to now, the locality has only replaced 37,000/160,000 foam buoys of all kinds, reaching 23.1%. The replacement of foam floats in the area is slow, mainly due to the form of oyster farming with large rafts, which requires suitable plastic floats. Households raising by this form of raft can't change pillows like households raising by rope, using small plastic floats like some localities (Van Don, Cam Pha).

Besides, more than 2 years of the Covid-19 epidemic caused the seafood consumption market to slow down, the purchasing price was low, many farming households were affected, and it was difficult to recover investment capital. It is known that Quang Yen town has introduced and connected suppliers of standard plastic floats (announced by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development), but according to the aquaculture household in Quang Yen town, the enterprise produces plastic floats that are compatible with standards. standards are not interested in providing inputs for households due to the small, fragmented and unfocused number.

Mr. Tran Manh Thang, Head of Economic Department of Quang Yen Town, said: In order to remove difficulties in sourcing suitable plastic float materials for converted aquaculture households, the locality is currently guiding a households specializing in pilot production of floats made of composite materials. The process of testing floats made of this material is evaluated by households as appropriate, and the price is cheaper than some standard-compliant floats on the market.

Currently, the locality is sending floating buoy samples made from composite materials to the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology for assessment and recognition of standard conformity. If recognized, this will be a way to help households proactively source alternative plastic floats, saving costs with an average price of 250,000-280,000 VND/buoy. In the coming time, the locality will continue to propagandize and handle the request that aquaculture households, after harvesting, must convert foam floats to standard-compliant floats as committed.