VietNamNet Bridge – Inspectors from Russia and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will this week examine seafood businesses which export or have registered to ship their products to these markets.

Employees of a seafood processing factory in the Mekong Delta select tra products

The foreign inspectors will look into 25 seafood processing firms having their products exported to the markets, according to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (Nafiqad).

Nafiqad said 41 seafood enterprises which are seeking approval for shipments to Russia will also be subject to the inspections.

Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), described the inspections as “normal examinations.”

Hoe said the United States, South Korea and other countries send their inspection teams to Vietnam checking the processing facilities of seafood exporters every year.

The most recent inspection by Russia into Vietnam’s seafood was made last year when its inspectors visited eight tra fish processing and trading firms and later issued a ban on tra export to Russia since January 31. However, tra fish fillets were allowed for re-export to Russia in August this year after negotiations between representatives of Nafiqad and VASEP and Russia.

In a related development, some processing facilities reported to Nafiqad that their exports have been banned from Brazil after the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) suspended licensing seafood imports from Vietnam as requested by Brazil’s Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture (MPA). This agency said they did not receive any report from Vietnam on the solutions to the issues recommended in a MPA report in March 2013.

However, Nafiqad said this agency has not received an official announcement related to the ban on imports of Vietnamese seafood products from Brazil’s authorities or the Brazilian embassy in Vietnam.

Nafiqad called for local seafood businesses to contact with Brazilian importers to update the situation. The agency is now working with related parties and will inform local firms of the ban as soon as it has results.

Few tra fish exporters add value to products

* A recent survey conducted by the Vietnam Pangasius Association (VN Pangasius) shows that a small number of local tra fish exporters are interested in technology that helps add value to their products though they are aware that this is a sustainable business growth model.

Vo Hung Dung, vice chairman and general secretary of VN Pangasius, shared the point with the Daily on the sidelines of a seminar on processing technology for higher value of tra fish products in Can Tho City last week.

Improving product quality is urgent for processors as competition among tra fish exporters has turned fiercer in terms of markets and prices when they sell semi-processed or normal products.

Statistics of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development indicated that value-added products account for a mere 10% of the total tra exports while frozen tra fish fillets make up the remaining 90%.

Dung explained it is easy for enterprises to sell large volumes of tra fillets and local exporters still lack necessary facilities to add value to products.

Enterprises are also concerned that they will have to invest in corporate governance when they enhance the value of their products. “A processing factory can turn out hundreds of types of products with different packages and governance for this facility is quite different from a factory able to process normal fillets only,” Dung said.

The profit margin of exporters of normal tra fish fillets has declined as the consequence of tougher competition and many have incurred losses. Therefore, now is a good time to attend to value-added products, Dung said.

Talking to the Daily on the sidelines of the seminar, some corporate representatives said that unlike producers of value-added items, a large number of tra fish fillets have encountered a host of difficulties due to volatile prices of unprocessed fish in the past.  

Jörg Rosenberger, deputy general director of Germany-based Nienstedt, said Vietnamese tra fish products sell well in Europe and that this is one of the fish products having high prices.

European consumers have a tendency to buy high-quality processed products, especially the ready-to-eat products. Rosenberger said Nienstedt can aid in marketing and processing technology.

Dung of VN Pangasius suggested local enterprises consider importing equipment and machines from the United States, Europe and Japan and their clients in these markets can assist in sharing information about consumer behaviors in these major importing markets of Vietnamese tra fish fillets.

Source: SGT