March 11, 2011

 

Vietnam to fund 10-year fisheries plan with US$2 billion

 

 

Vietnam will allocate a yearly standard budget of around US$200 million in the next 10 years for a master plan to expand the country's aquaculture sector.

 

The master plan, just approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, is envisioned raising the fish farming industry's output to 4.5 million tonnes a year for local sale and export.

 

In the first five years, the output is projected to climb to 3.6 million tonnes, and exports to amount to US$3.5-4 billion. The respective figures in the following five years will rise to 4.5 million tonnes and US$5-5.5 billion.

 

Tra fish and shrimp will continue to be the industry's key export earners. Tra output is forecast in the master plan to grow at an annual rate of 4.8% to reach 1.5 million or two million tonnes by 2020. Respective projections for shrimp will be 5.7% and 700,000 tonnes.

 

Mollusk farming and general seafood farming are expected to rise 16% and 14.9% annually respectively.

 

The master plan highlights key issues that should be addressed, such as infrastructure development, breeding development, technology transfer, disease control, environmental improvement, production and distribution system development, and information dissemination.

 

The capital for translating the master plan into reality will be sourced from the state budget (10%), bank loans (50%), and private sector investment (the rest).

 

The tra fish farming sector has seen output declining to 800,000 tonnes from last year's 1.4 million tonnes, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

 

VASEP's secretary general, Truong Dinh Hoe, said fast volume growth and unhealthy competitive practices such as price undercutting and failure to ensure quality in the last few years have spelled trouble for the fish on world markets, especially the US that has slapped anti-dumping duties on tra imports from Vietnam.

 

"A downward adjustment of output is good for farming restructuring and market consolidation," Hoe said.

 

Tra fish prices for processors in the Mekong Delta, the country's key tra and basa fish farming area, has steadily inched up since January, with this week seeing prices surging to a high of VND26,000 (US$1.25) per kg on increasingly thin supply.

 

The falling supply has resulted from the fact that many farmers abandoned their farms last year due to high farming costs and volatile tra prices.

 

Shrimp exporters can expect a jump in revenue this year. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, shrimp suppliers in Asia in the first quarter of the year have faced raw material shortages. Meanwhile, Canada and China, among others seem to be cutting export volume, thus affecting global supply.

 

The recent move by the US Department of Commerce to lower antidumping duties for frozen warmwater shrimp imports from Vietnam is an incentive for local exporters to spur shipments. VASEP said shrimp exports are forecast to reach US$2 billion this year.