Undercurrent News has just announced the world’s 100 largest seafood companies, including Minh Phu Seafood JSC (code: MPC)—the only company of Vietnam in the top 50—which climbed 12 steps to the 41st position.

Minh Phu is the only Vientamese company in the top 50

Undercurrent News recorded MPC’s export revenue at $690 million in 2017, increasing by 31 per cent against the $533 million in the previous year. Publicly traded company MPC produced around 60,000 tonnes of shrimp in 2017, two-thirds of which was vannamei and the rest black tiger.

According to the report, a look at the main species farmed by aquaculture producers revealed the unsurprising dominance of salmon species—with 22 of 36 companies farming salmonids, within which Atlantics dominate.

Vannamei shrimp is the second most popular farmed species, with 10 of the aquaculture companies farming it. Three companies on the list are farming black tiger shrimp and giant river prawn shrimp, while six others are farming tilapia.

Among the 100 largest seafood companies of Undercurrent News, Japan ranks first with 23 global seafood companies, including Mitsubishi (ranking 6th), Marusui Sapporo Chuo Suisan (66th), and Sendai Suisan (88th), followed by Norway, China, Canada, and Ecuador.

The fluctuations in the year-to-year company rankings are often closely linked to changes in the prices of key seafood commodities. However, within farmed warm water shrimp, prices from Asia in 2017 remained fairly in line with 2016, after recovering from the slump of 2015. Farmers, such as Minh Phu Seafood and Santa Priscila, still recorded sales growth in the double-digits (31 and 14 per cent, respectively), though most of their peers had more modest growth.

Meanwhile, according to MPC, the corporation could produce 70,000 tonnes of seafood this year, and expects to gain over VND1 trillion ($44.25 million). MPC is issuing private stocks to raise capital and accelerate capacity. In the second round of negotiation, eight investors wanted to buy shares of Minh Phu, with the highest quantity at 35 per cent of MPC stocks.

Otherwise, Le Van Quang, chairman of MPC, revealed that Minh Phu Seafood would list on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) after announcing its 2018 financial statement because they could not move from UPCoM to HSX this year.

VIR