Tuna fishermen haul in profits

Tuna fishermen haul in profits

Fishermen in Phu Yen Province's Tuy Hoa City have finally had a good catch of tuna this year, with good prices surpassing last year's dismal catch.

Nguyen Ky, whose boat returned to the fishing port of Tuy Hoa City's Ward 6 early this week after 25 days, said he had caught 35 tuna weighing a total of 1.5 tonnes.

With a tuna price of VND135,000 (US$6.4) a kilogramme, Ky earned a profit of VND50 million ($2,400).

Ky said each fisherman on his fishing boat had received VND5-6 million after the trip.

"This is my first successful fishing trip this year," Ky said.

Ky said he had suffered losses on several previous fishing trips last year because of poor catches.

Recently, many fishing boats full of tuna have returned to the Ward 6's fishing port, with boats averaging 1.5 tonnes of tuna each trip, according to local fishermen.

Fisherman Huynh Du in Ward 6, who earned a profit of VND200 million for his last tuna fishing trip, said good weather conditions for fishing tuna had occurred this year.

Phan Thuan, chairman of the Ward 6' Fishing Union, said 80 per cent of the ward's 196 tuna fishing boats were offshore.

The remaining boats had stayed on shore because of losses on previous fishing trips last year, he said.

The price of tuna has increased to VND130-140,000 a kilogramme this year compared to VND100,000-110,000 last year.

Phu Yen began tuna fishing 20 years ago, the first province in the country to do so.

The central province has about 1,000 tuna fishing boats.

Last year, more than 80 per cent of the province's tuna fishing boats suffered losses because of low tuna prices.

The country's tuna is exported to 87 countries and territories.

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