AS prices continue to climb for freshwater lobster, farming of the crustacean in Cambodia is increasing.

Prum Vath, a lobster farmer in Takeo province’s Angkor Borei district, said he was enlarging his farm into Kampong Thom to meet the increased demand.

“I’ve seen the lobster market growing while the fisheries are in less demand,” he said.

A kilogram of top-quality lobster sells for about US$30, up from $10 in 2005, according to lobster farmers.

In early 2012, Prum Vath said he will release 400,000 lobsters into a 30-hectare farm.

An increased price in the Cambodian crustacean was due in part to the depletion of the Kingdom’s species in recent years, he added.

The government is seeking to foster new growth in Cambodia’s wild lobster after fishing pressure diminished the population, Nao Thouk, general director of Fishery Administration at Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery, said.

Fishery officials had released 120,000 baby lobsters into Tonle Sap last year and expected to stock another million by the end of this year, Nao Thouk said.

An estimated seven million baby lobsters would be stocked by the end of 2012, he said.