Vietnam looks to lift shrimp industry

Shrimp-processing firms will not be allowed to operate if they use less than 10 percent of their own raw materials, the Directorate of Fisheries has proposed.
Shrimp-processing firms will not be allowed to operate if they use lessthan 10 percent of their own raw materials, the Directorate of Fisherieshas proposed.

The aim is to improve quality of shrimp exports, it has said.

Theremaining 90 percent of the raw materials for the shrimp processorswould be supplied through consumption contracts authenticated byGovernment agencies, according to the proposal.

The Directorateof Fisheries is drawing up a draft managerial plan for the production,processing and export of brackish-water shrimp in the Mekong RiverDelta.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, by the end oflast year, the Mekong River Delta had about 596,000 ha under shrimpfarming, accounting for 91 percent of the country's total brackish-watershrimp-farming area.

The region produces about 431,570 tonnesof brackish shrimp a year, but the output has met only 60-70 percent ofdesigned capacity of shrimp processing plants in the region.

Dueto raw material shortage, many processing plants have had to operateunder their designed capacity, with many of them having to import rawmaterials from other countries, it said.

Vietnam has nearly 200enterprises involved in processing and exporting shrimp with a combinedprocessing capacity of nearly one million tonnes of products a year, asof the end of last year.

Only a few firms have invested todevelop their own material sources. Most shrimp processing plants havebought shrimp from traders who purchase them from farmers.

Thedirectorate said collecting shrimp from various small sources hadresulted in inconsistent quality, making it hard to monitor chemicalresidues and trace the origin of the shrimp.

In addition,unhealthy competitive practices in purchasing materials, and inprocessing and exporting, had affected the prestige of Vietnamese shrimpin the world market.

The draft proposal requires shrimp exportfirms to register export volume, quality and price with authorisedagencies under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment (MARD).

Firms will not be allowed to sell their products lower than the floor price set by MARD's agencies in each market.

Iffirms are found offering selling prices lower than the set price orselling poor quality products, they will be strictly punished, or besuspended from exporting.

Under the draft project, shrimp farmers must follow farming regulations set out by MARD.

TheDirectorate of Fisheries' project also aims to have all plannedshrimp-farming areas in the Mekong Delta apply Vietnamese GoodAgricultural Practices.

The directorate is now collecting opinions for the draft.-VNA

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