Seafood processing factories thirsty for materials

While export markets all opening their doors widely, Vietnamese seafood processing factories run at only moderate level because they have few materials.

Deputy General Director of Baseafood Huynh Minh Tuong said that every year, Baseafood needs 20-25,000 tons of materials for processing and domestic sources can usually meet 70 percent of their demand.

“We have been moving heaven and earth to see materials,” Tuong exclaimed.

The volume of materials caught from wild cannot increase, and have even decreased. Baseafood and other companies must use imports from other countries, but even then they don’t have enough

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, the material shortage may last until the end of 2010, especially shrimp and tra fish.

The shortage not only occurs in seafood caught from wild, but with farmed seafood as well. Some people have shifted to farming other kinds of seafood with higher values, thus leading to the lack of shrimp and basa fish.

According to the Ca Mau province’s Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, seafood processing factories in the province are now running at 50 percent of designed capacity due to the lack of shrimp. Fourteen out of 26 factories have to cut down production or even ask workers to stay home.

The majority of 23 seafood processing workshops in An Giang province are also running at 50-60 percent of the capacity, since 60 percent of fish ponds have been left idle. Farmers, who incurred heavy losses in previous crops, have given up farming, which means no material for processing factories.

Importing materials from other countries is the solution chosen by many enterprises, but forces production costs to go up. Then the enterprises cannot raise the prices accordingly due to stiff competition in the world.

According to a Binh Thuan-based seafood processing company, Thai enterprises are the biggest rivals in the region, especially in exporting products like cuttle fish, codfish and tuna.

Tuong from Baseafood said that in order to overcome these obstacles, his company has changed its business strategy. Baseafood now focuses on making products with higher added value, allowing it to reduce the volume of materials used while ensuring the same turnover and profit. The company has also built a big storage system to house more materials and it uses more aquaculture materials to replace materials caught from wild.

The first workshop of the company, for example, is using 10 percent aquaculture materials for processing, and the figure will be raised to 30 percent in the time to come.

Tien phong

Tags: Vietnam Seafood, Vietnam seafood sector