VASEP Contributes Greatly to Seafood Growth

 

In the period of 2008-2009, Vietnam’s seafood sector has still represented the growth, but started to meet challenges and unsustainable development signs. Apart from facing lack in materials for production, the US’s two anti-dumping suits over shrimp and fish products, the US’s farm law 2008, Vietnamese seafood enterprises also confronted with consecutively new challenges and disadvantaged issues. 

 

However, thanks to the determination of enterprises and millions of fishermen, plus with the instructions by the Vietnamese government, the ministry of agriculture and rural development, relevant ministries and agencies and people’s committees of localities, the seafood sector’s production output and volume of exports was still on the rise last year. In detail, the sector shipped 1,236,344 tons of seafood products in 2008, up 33.7 percent on year, bringing export turnover of $4.51 billion, up 19.8 percent against 2007. According to the latest statistics of the Statistics General Office, the total output of seafood in the first five months of this year was estimated to have reached 17366 tons, up 4.4 percent on year.   

 

The achievements were attributed to the whole sector’s effort, including the great contribution of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and its members. Over the past years, boards of the VASEP have promoted lots of various and effective activities, manifesting their dynamic roles. The operation of boards has showed the efficiency in gathering enterprises together to settle with commercial barriers and the market’s fluctuations. The association has also closely cooperated with authorities in providing necessary information as well as organizing meetings to correct the inexact information involved in Vietnam’s seafood exports published by foreign media.  

 

Regarding the trade promotion work and market development, during the past year, the association sent ten delegations of domestic enterprises to participate in the seafood and foodstuff fairs organized in the US, Japan, South Korea and others. It also sent experts to Egypt and Morocco to study the potential markets. The association also joined hands with the ministry of agriculture and rural development to hold many professional seminars on the country’s seafood sector; successfully organized the Vietfish 2008 fair and made careful preparations for the event this year. In addition, the VASEP also organized training courses to support enterprises as well as represented well its role as a bridge linking the sector’s firms with state units. The association also actively expanded relations and integrated international partners in order to raise the competitive capacity and seek for more consumption markets for the country’s seafood products.    

Based on the achievements gained in 2008, the VASEP planed to build in the period of 2009-2010 a vertical connection between the material production and the processing and consumption, in parallel with a horizontal connection among enterprises operating on the same field. Besides, the association also plans to enhance the management of quality and origin of products in order to ensure Vietnam’s seafood products in the market and deal with commercial barriers. It also aims to build a sufficient market information system to facilitate the export. The association will also hold more training courses to increase human forces for the seafood processing and exporting areas. One among key tasks is to prepare for the 4^th VASEP Congress, which will focus on the building of a strategy to renovate the operation mechanism and raise the role of the association; the protection of interests of member enterprises and outline the plan for long-term and sustainable development.    

 

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong highly appreciated the efforts as well as the achievements obtained by VASEP over the past time. Particularly he emphasized the association’s determination to ask for the purity of Vietnam’s seafood exports. Phuong, however, also noted that on the other view, VASEP has not yet built a long-term development strategy as well as not cooperated incomprehensively with ministries and central agencies. It also has not issued a strong enough sanction to possibly curb the unsound competitiveness among enterprises.

 

If the association overcomes the shortages and map out orientations for the sector’s development, it will make better results in the future.