February 13, 2009

Vietnamese government has said that seafood producers, who depend mainly on imports for fish feed, should consider backward integration so that they can reduce costs and improve their global competitiveness. 

Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) deputy minister Luong Le Phuong told local media that to improve their competitiveness, seafood producers should be active in all stages - from producing breeding stock and making fish feed to processing products.

Phuong said the reported cooperation between catfish (tra) producers of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh to sell their products on the global market would pose a great challenge.

He said that Vietnamese producers should not worry too much as their country has the best natural conditions to raise catfish and competition is to be expected in the business.

He also said the ministry has also instructed concerned agencies to intensify monitoring of seafood exports for quality, adding that some buyers like the US, Germany and Russia have warned Vietnam about seafood quality problems.

Earlier, Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) vice chairman Nguyen Huu Dung said the government should ban the use of chemicals, whose residues remain in the fish and hamper exports.

MARD minister Cao Duc Phat said the ministry would soon set up a scientists' council to examine the chemicals to add them to the list of banned chemicals if necessary.