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VietNamNet Bridge – Seafood processing factories are seriously lacking
materials, because of which they can only run at 70 percent of capacity.
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Hundreds of workers left the factories at 3 pm, when the sun was still burning, because they had no more works to do. One of the workers said that the materials are not just enough for the workers to do until 3 pm every day, and five days a week.
Materials lacking, workers sitting idle
Phan Thi Yen Dam, Shop Forewoman of the Hung Vuong Chau Au seafood processing factory in My Tho Industrial Zone in Tien Giang province, led reporters to tra processing workshops. By 2 pm, the workers in charge of receiving fish had finished their works, while the workers of the filet processing workshop were seen nearly completing their works.
Dam, who has been working there for eight years, said that the material shortage has never been so serious before. In normal conditions, the factory processes 150-200 tons of fish per day, while the volume has dropped to 100 tons in recent months.
“Material shortage means less works and lower income,” said Le Thanh Trung, 27, a worker of the factory.
Trung said that his income depends on the productivity. In general, Trung has to make 100-120 kilos of products from 5 am to 6 pm to earn 6 million dong a month (2000 dong per kilo). However, in the last month, since the material shortage, his income has decreased by 30,000-40,000 dong per day.
More than 500 workers of the Hung Vuong Chau Au factory now only work five days a week, which means that they only have income from 22 working days a month. However, Hung Vuong Chau Au’s workers prove to be luckier than the workers of other factories.
Workers of Ngoc Ha, Hiep Long, Viet Phu and An Phat factories have complained that they only work 3-4 days a week, which means that their income has dropped from 5 million dong to 2 million dong a month.
“At first, I worked for An Phat, but I have left the factory because the income was too small, just 2 million dong month. Now I am working for Hung Vuong Chau Au, but the situation is not much better,” a worker said.
Nguyen Van Ky, Director of Agifish An Giang, has confirmed that the company is now processing only 150 tons a day instead of 200-250 tons as previously. He went on to say that material shortage is the problem of all processing factories, not only Agifish An Giang.
“I know some factories have shut down, while others have been running at moderate level of 50 percent of the capacity,” he said.
Seafood processors weeping
Duong Ngoc Minh, Deputy Chair of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers VASEP, who is also director of the Hung Vuong Seafood Company with 9000 workers, has admitted that the lack of materials has caused serious problems to processing factories.
Minh said that though Hung Vuong has been trying to develop material areas itself for the last few years, the materials just can meet 60-65 percent of the capacity.
Also according to Minh 70 percent of the 100 operational small enterprises are facing the same problem. The running at below designed capacity has caused a big headache to enterprises. Especially, the risk of losing clients is obvious.
A director, who asked to be anonymous, said that in order to earn enough money to pay for electricity, water, security guards and administrative office and workers’ waves, the factory needs to produce 15 tons of fish per day. The director said that enterprises can only cut down expenses if they stop operation.
Source: SGTT
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