Aquaculture genetics for sustainable shrimp and clam farming in Vietnam
- Region: Vietnam
- Sector: Aquaculture (Shrimp & Clam)
- Duration: 2025 – 2027
- 4 Project partners
The AquaGeneVietnam partnership is a collaboration between Vietnamese and Dutch companies aimed at enhancing Vietnam’s position as a leading player in aquaculture. The partnership aims to develop and demonstrate advanced selective breeding programmes for shrimp and clams in the Vietnamese aquaculture sector. Localised selective breeding of shrimp to tailor them to Vietnamese conditions ensures optimal survival, growth, and disease resistance. Thus, addressing the critical bottleneck in high-quality post-larvae availability. Dutch expertise provides the disease-free post-larvae that Vietnam urgently needs. Reliable performance data under local conditions limits pathogen spread and boosts productivity across the Mekong Delta. From a clam production perspective, a selective breeding programme to improve strains to thrive in brackish water enables farmers to diversify income streams and transform waste into valuable resources. Through circular aquaculture systems, innovative methods convert dissolved nutrients into algal growth through biofilters, creating natural clam food. This circular approach delivers income stability while addressing market volatility. By combining Dutch genetic expertise with Vietnamese farming knowledge, the AquaGeneVietnam partnership creates sustainable solutions that strengthen the Vietnamese aquaculture value chain, enhance farmer livelihoods, and position the Netherlands as a premium genetics supplier in Southeast Asia.
Planned activities
- Integrated shrimp genetics trials: Conduct two types of comprehensive trials combining benchmark testing and advanced sentinel analysis to develop and demonstrate disease-free genetics for Vietnamese farmers in the Mekong Delta, with genetics specifically adapted to local environmental conditions, disease pressures and farming practices.
- Clam genetics trials: Develop clam genetics capable of thriving in the lower salinity levels required for integration with shrimp farming systems through systematic breeding programs and controlled adaptation trials.
- Demonstration of clam filtering capacity: Demonstrate clam performance and integration potential in wastewater treatment systems, showcasing filtering capacity using effluent water at demonstration facilities.
- Business case development for clam integration: Develop a comprehensive business case analysis for farmers considering clam integration or transition to clam farming.
Striving for impact
Economic
- Reduced pathogen spread in hatcheries.
- Stabilised yields attracting investment.
- Enhanced profitability across the shrimp sector.
- Alternative income through clam diversification.
- Strategic Dutch positioning in Southeast Asia.
Environmental
- Wastewater transformed into a resource.
- Advanced technologies showcasing and driving modernisation.
- Clam cultivation improving local water quality.
- Comprehensive genetic performance data.
- Sustainable water usage through circular aquaculture systems.
Social
- Comprehensive farmer training programmes.
- EU market access through sustainability.
- Objective data for informed decisions.
- Enhanced Mekong Delta farmer revenue.
- Disease-free genetics accessibility.
The AquaGeneVietnam partnership is a collaboration between Vietnamese and Dutch companies aimed at enhancing Vietnam’s position as a leading player in aquaculture. The programme aims to develop and demonstrate advanced selective breeding programmes for shrimp and clams in the Vietnamese aquaculture sector.
Consortium partners:
- Hendrix Genetics is a Dutch multi-species animal breeding, genetics and technology company and will focus on the supply of advanced shrimp genetics from Kona Buy bringing expertise in shrimp genetics and breeding technologies.
- Lugten Aquaculture is a Dutch aquaculture company and will focus on professional clam seed cultivation in Ninh Thuan province, Vietnam.
- RYNAN Smart Aquaculture is a Vietnamese smart aquaculture solutions company and will make available the trial location in Vinh Long Province, Vietnam.
- Larive International is a business development firm active in emerging markets and will coordinate the AquaGeneVietnam partnership.
This Partnership contributes to the following SDGs:
SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure.
AquaGeneVietnam develops and demonstrates advanced selective breeding programmes for shrimp and clams that are fully adapted to Vietnamese conditions, using integrated genetics trials, IoT-based performance monitoring, and professional hatchery infrastructure in the Mekong Delta. This directly supports SDG 9 by improving Vietnamese aquaculture production systems through localized genetic improvement that enhances survival, growth, and disease resistance, combined with data-driven management and robust trial facilities that modernise the value chain from post-larvae supply to on-farm performance. The partnership’s circular aquaculture approach uses clams as natural biofilters, which convert dissolved nutrients into algal growth as natural clam feed, thereby showcasing innovative, resource-efficient, and cleaner production models that offer an additional business case for farmers and can be replicated across the region.
SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production.
By supplying disease-free, locally adapted post-larvae and reducing pathogen pressure, AquaGeneVietnam improves shrimp survival rate and feed efficiency, which lowers resource use and waste per kilogram of shrimp or clams produced. The integration of clams as biofilters in circular systems transforms wastewater into a productive input, improving water quality and promoting circularity, in line with SDG 12’s focus on sustainable resource management and reduced environmental impacts along food value chains. Through robust performance data, a business case for clam integration and farmer training, the partnership enables producers to make informed decisions that balance productivity with long-term environmental stewardship.
