Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice Chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Seafoods Exporters and Processors (VASEP) said seafoods exports in the first nine months of this year reached U$3.35 billion, an increase of 23 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Despite this growth, he said, the industry was unstable at present, with both farmers and processing enterprises in considerable trouble.

Dung said earlier this year, the seafood industry had experienced major difficulties due to depreciation of the US dollar, increase in input materials price, and tightening of bank loans.

Vu Van Dung, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Aquaculture Department said seafood production was facing difficulties due to the absence of a master plan for development of the industry, the fluctuation in prices and unstable supply of seafood for processing.

To address the problem, he said the industry needed to take fresh initiatives to streamline production and processing plans.

Phan Nhat Ai, director of Vinh Long Province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the industry needed to estabish a clear and consistent market information system.

He cited the example that many seafood processing enterprises and aquaculture farmers in Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta’s Vinh Long Province, one of the region’s largest aquaculture areas, lacked accurate information about domestic and export market prices.

This led them to sell their products at lower prices, incurring losses in the process.

Le Tieu La, head of the Fisheries Economy Institute, said the fast growth of seafood processing enterprises was problematic. These plants had a total capacity of 5.1 million tonnes, while the supply of materials was only 3.2 million tonnes.

This year, the industry has set an export revenue target of US$4.2 billion, which means it should record earnings of $850 million in the remaining months of the year.

Le Xuan, head of the Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Processing Department said the target would be difficult to reach because the global financial crisis was impacting many countries, and many foreign markets were tending to reduce imports.

Source: VNS