Vietnam’s two biggest seafood-export earners are running on opposites track because shrimp processors have been forced to run at one-third capacity, while a focus on quality has boosted tra fish exports. It is fact that shrimp and tra fish made up nearly 70 percent of Vietnamese seafood exports last year. There is acute shortage of shrimp from farmers and that’s force processors to run low while the exports have been growing this year.
Record shows that in the first half of the year exported shrimp prices increased by 84 percent in France, 20 percent in Japan and 7 percent in the U.S. Truong Dinh Hoe, secretary general of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said many factories in the Mekong Delta and the central region are processing at 30-50 percent capacity because of the shrimp shortage because of bad weather, seasonality and increasing demand.
Hoe informed that shrimp prices are unstable compared to other export products like tra fish. Shrimps are very sensitive to weather change, environment and diseases, which is why processors like to pass the buck to farmers. He also told that while they wait for the next shrimp harvest, some factories have switched to processing imported shrimps and changed business strategies.
Tran Van Linh, director of Thuan Phuoc Seafoods and Trading Corporation in Danang City said the severe shortage in the Central region forced him to sign bigger contracts. Ly Phuoc An, director of Phu Cuong Jostoco in Ca Mau Province said he had to choose a cheaper shrimp as his main product because it was more available. An said that demand from European countries has decreased considerably since the financial crisis and the euro weakened. Markets shifted to Japan, Taiwan and only a few European countries.
More Vietnamese seafood producers are getting international quality certificates to attract major markets including the U.S., the EU, Japan, says VASEP. The head of Vinh Hoan said the company expected to raise the average value of its tra fish by 10-20 percent, and build its quality export capacity. Ngo Phuoc Hau, chairman of the Fresh Water Fish Committee under VASEP, told that tra fish exporters have shifted from buying fish from farmers to growing the fish themselves, as it’s easier to build a quality control system like Global Gap.
