15 September

RIVER catfish and Viet Nam but-ter fish will now be bred as local species in Myanmar, according to U Hla Htay, the deputy head of the Yangon Region Fisheries Department.  Meanwhile,  basa  fish, bred in hatching camps, will be phased out, he added.

 He made the remarks at the 16th  regular  meeting  of  fishery  sector  entrepreneurs,  held  on  10  September  at  the  Myanmar  Fisheries Federation, Yangon.

“Last year, around 20 river catfish fingerlings were brought from  Twantay  to  the  Hlawgar  hatching camp. This year, we will hatch the river catfish on a trial basis. We have already informed the director-general and officials from the fisheries department of our plans to breed river catfish. We received Viet Nam butter fish when the Kandawgyi aquarium was  shut  down.  At  the  time,  the  fish  were  handed  from  the  Kandawgyi aquarium to the fish-eries  department.  Now,  we  are  planning to breed only these two species. Thereafter, the breeding of  Bocourti  and  Hypopthalmus  species of catfish will be discon-tinued  in  the  hatching  camp,”  said U Hla Htay.

“Currently, Myanmar is pro-ducing  catfish  which  is  a  com-bination  of  the  Hypopthalmus  and Bocourti species. So, we are finding it difficult to name this hy-brid species. We are also facing difficulties  recommending  the  species, when we export catfish to China,” he said.
“We  cannot  say  the  catfish  is either Bocourti or Hypopthal-mus  because  it  is  one  and  the  same fish. Foreign countries ver-ify fish by checking them against the name of the species. We need to  say  unambiguously  that  the  catfish is either Bocourti or Hy-popthalmus,” he added.

The Hypopthalmus species of catfish have been bred in Myanmar since 1994. In 2009-2010, officials from the related minis-try visited Viet Nam and import-ed 23 Bocourti species of catfish. Those Bocourti species of catfish were  hatched  at  the  Hlawgar  hatching camp on a trial basis.

Taking stock of the interna-tional market conditions in 2011, Bocourti  species  were  hatched  as  a  pilot  project  because  this  species enjoyed greater demand than Hypopthalmus, said U Hla Htay.

Myanmar   shipped   one   container  load  of  Pangasius  Hypopthalmus  species  to  Chi-na informally on a trial basis in September,  2018,  because  the  species  was  not  registered  on  the Chinese website, according to  the  Myanmar  Fisheries  De-partment. 

By Aye Yamone
(Translated by Hay Mar)