Mekong Delta Aquaculture: Gearing up the Processing Industry

 

Annually, the aquatic product processing industry accounted for above 56 per cent of the total export turnover of the Mekong Delta region in the 2001-2005 period. Apart from its advantages in material sources, the Mekong Delta region also has an abundant workforce –essential for development of the labour-intensive aquatic product processing industry. The region now has about 136 aquatic product processing factories with a combined capacity of over 790,000 tonnes of materials a year.

 

Private investment in the processing industry makes up above 74 per cent of the total investment in the whole region. For example, Dai Tay Duong Co. Ltd in Can Tho City has recently inaugurated the region's largest processing factory with a capacity of 7,000 tonnes of finished products annually. Besides, joint stock companies, which were transformed from wholly State-owned, are more active in processing expansion. Recently, the number of foreign companies investing in the aquatic product processing industry in Mekong Delta region is on the rise. Foreign firms possess good prospects to develop the aquatic processing industry in the coming time.

 

According to Mr. Phan Truong Giang, Director of Bac Lieu Department of Fisheries, in spite of quick growth, the lax managerial activities and loose cooperation between businesses and farmers have led to the unhealthy dumping prices. Furthermore, the different quality among processing factories also affects the general reputation of the regional aquatic products on the international market.

 

In addition, many aquatic processing factories in Mekong Delta region only export unprocessed frozen products; hence, the export value is not very high. In the region, only several companies processed exports with high added values, including Nam Hai Foodstuff Co. Ltd (Can Tho City) and Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Company (Ca Mau Province.)

 

According to expert assessments on aquaculture prospects, to promote the strong points of the fisheries sector, aquatic product processing companies in Mekong Delta region must expand the production of well-processed items with high value for the domestic and export markets. Besides, they should also scale up their sales in the domestic market, especially bringing their products to market and supermarket chains in the country. The domestic market is a potential place for the aquatic product processing sector to gear up but it has been neglected in recent years.

 

At present, the State should apply policies to consolidate the cooperation between production planning and sales and encourage the improvement of techniques to rear high-quality and disease-free fish. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has submitted to the Ministry of Fisheries a list of allowable and disallowable antibiotics in aquaculture to put an end to the responsibility dispute between farmers and processors when there is fish being reported infected antibiotics.

 

At the 9^th conference on "Developing the aquatic product processing industry in Mekong Delta region until 2010," all regional provinces and cities agreed to set up a regional aquatic product processing association. This association will link aquatic product processing industry development activities among regional localities to promote the internal force and create a mutual assistance between State organs and processing enterprises with farmers. These will lay ground to speed up the development of the aquatic product processing industry in Mekong Delta region in the coming time.

 

According to the Ministry of Fisheries, Vietnam now has 440 aquatic product processing facilities, including 320 refrigerating units with a combined capacity of 4,300 tonnes a day, whose products are for export.

 

The ministry's figures show that more than 170 aquatic product processing enterprises are allowed to export to the EU market, 300 companies applying HACCP standard are accepted by the US market, 295 units can export to the Chinese market and 251 units can export to South Korean market.