Media report states that higher input material prices, rising shipping costs and rising electricity, water and fuel prices have brought huge challenges for seafood export enterprises. Vietnamese seafood companies have exported 41.63 billion in just five months of the current financial year. This fulfils 35 percent of the yearly plan to obtain $4.5 billion.
This sows that the five month export turnover is encouraging, rise by 18 percent over the same period of 2009. Tran Thien Linh, Director of Thuan Phuoc Seafood Company, said that since everything is getting more expensive that it has eaten into the company’s profits.
Nguyen Thanh Dam, General Director of Bac Lieu Seafood Company, agreed that the additional costs have made production costs rise by 6-8 percent. Meanwhile, they cannot raise prices in accordance with the higher costs of input materials. He complained that for the last half a year, Bac Lieu has been trying to maintain production to provide enough jobs for its workers, but it has no profits.
Nguyen Van Ky, General Director of Agrifish An Giang, also observed that the tra price has increased by 11 percent, making finished products less competitive. Seafood companies agree that cutting expenses may be the only solution. Ky explained that previously, Agrifish tried to keep many factories, but now we have restructured to cut management costs plus electricity and water fees.
