Michael Mackey reports that Burma plans to join the roster of salmon and caviar producing nations, according to a report in the official Myanmar Times.
"The plan is to establish cold climate fish farms in the country’s northernmost Kachin State, and was hatched after an early December visit by a delegation of DOF (Department of Fisheries) officials and fisheries industry members to similar farms in Vietnam," said the paper. The species likely to be farmed are sturgeon, famous for the caviar (eggs) it produces, and salmon, it added.
Towns already identified as possible locations for farms are Putao, Myitkyina and Kanpaiktee.
“We have been offered investment and the technology required to produce these fish. We think this represents a good investment for our farmers in the future,” the paper quoted U Khin Ko Lay, director general of the DOF as having said. Vietnamese money is also being talked about.
The idea is not as fanciful as would first seem. Myanmar already farms the mrigal, tilapia and common carp in Shan, Kachin and Chin states but the sturgeon and salmon would be new.
