April 7, 2006

 

Vietnam province to boost seafood exports through increased infrastructure

 

 

Binh Thuan, a province along the south-eastern coast of Vietnam, will spend an estimated VND540 billion (US$34 million) on technology improvement in its seafood industry in the next 5 years.

 

Part of the funding will used to invest in seafood processing infrastructure in order to attract investors to the region and create favourable conditions for enterprises.

 

The plan came about due to a lack of seafood processors in the province. Binh Thuan is Vietnam's third largest harvestor of seafood but its exporting value is just 1.4 percent of the nation's seafood exports.

 

Many companies avoid the hassle of exporting products because they lack the proper documentation and modern machinery to do so. Thus, many of them restrict themselves to simple processing before selling the seafood to companies in neighbouring provinces.

 

Also, companies are also leery of investing in equipment for full processing due to the unpredictable nature of the seafood haul. Typically, only about 40 percent of the seafood is processed and the rest are sold as semi-finished products.

 

That may be changing in a province where seafood exports accounts for more than half the total value of goods exported. Authorities have identified seafood export and processing capacities as the key to advancing the industry's development.

 

Authorities are hoping to increase seafood exports by 15 percent from 2005's figure of US$55.3 million to US$65 million with the help of the new funding. To do that, it is enlarging its market by encouraging companies to develop fish products and improve shrimp processing.

 

The local seafood industry is also embarking on a campaign to focus on processing and exporting frozen and dried seafood products and odourless fish sauce. It has held various activities including fairs, exhibitions as well as training courses on business, quality control and food hygiene.

 

The industry is also getting together to form organisations to help seafood export companies obtain funding.

 

Many companies are improving facilities at home while expanding markets abroad aggressively. An example is Hai Nam Ltd company, the province's leader in exporting and processing. The company has three large factories with a total capacity of 45 tonnes a day and exports to Japan, the European Union and the United States.

 

There are 66 seafood-processing companies in the province, half of which export their products. The majority of them have export values of under US$1 million.