After 10 consecutive years of increasing, in 2009, it has been the first time the development is minus. VASEP worries that in the near future, seafood will face ,more challenges in many aspects.

All are difficult
At the end of the year when the consuming demand increases, the price of pangasius in Cuu Long Delta is still in low rate. Mr Luong Van De, Trung Nhat ward (Thot Not- Can Tho) said sadly: “ The pond of 50 tonnes sold at the price of 14,500 VND/kg and after subtracting the expenditure, I lose 100 million VND”.
According to Mr De, this is the “low” loss compared to other “big boss” in Thot Not because since the beginning of the year, there have been many households that have lost hundreds to billions. Departments of Agriculture and Agriculture of provinces in Cuu Long Delta say that this is the second consecutive when farmers suffer loss. This proves that fisheries have more and more unstable.

When farmers have many difficulties, export enterprises are also in the similar situation. In An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho city… many enterprises cannot complete the plans or even suffers serious loss. The reason is that we lost Russian market at the beginning of the year and the export price of this year is low, the material fish is not enough. Thus, the situation of business is not favorable.
For giant tiger shrimp, though price is high, the production is not high. Thus, successful farmers are few. Currently, factories of processing export shrimps in Ca Mau, Bac Lieu, Soc Trang… materials lack seriously which causes bad affect to export.

Mr Ly Van Thuan, general secretary of Ca Mau Association of exporters and processors says that seafood export in 2009 is expected to reach just 630 million USD which is 35 million USD compared to the plan. It is worried that regressing farming environment causes the reduction in shrimp output, which causes factories to “stay still” to wait for increasing materials.

Recover order “ from manufacturing to exporting”
After the hey day “ everyone farms seafood- everyone builds processing factories”, seafood sector in Cuu Long Delta has the sign of staying still. Number of households that do not farm anymore increases when many enterprises in Dong Thap, An Giang… have been and are on sale due to loss.

“Many people misunderstand when they think that seafood export is “super profit” so they invest billions VND to build factories. Among the enterprises, many of them do not have enough profession or strength but they still join. As a result of this way of business which sell low-quality goods, the seafood sector losses it prestige. And that many small enterprises are on sale is a certain”.

Mr Dao says that this is the favourable time to rearrange farming and exporting seafood. According to it, we should have technical barriers in building factories. Just enterprises which have capacity, markets, qualified products… are allowed to export to avoid the situation of unfair competition.

Many specialists believe that in the coming time, seafood sector in Cuu Long Delta will continue developing because the demand of consuming seafood on global market is high. Specifically, our pangasius when compared to salmons of Norway, Japan, Russia or tilapia of China, has advantages on international market. The problem is that we have to arrange and scheme again suitably from farming area to producing breeds, caring, harvesting, exporting… All have base on specific regulations, standards. To achieve this goals, the Government plays the most important role because only it has the authorities and right to rearrange fishery to firm development.

Huynh Phuoc Loi

Source: SGGP

Translated by Vietfish Community