Representatives of local seafood firms have said they are planning to expand their businesses by selling products via supermarket channels.

Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, deputy chairwoman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) and the head of the association of enterprises providing seafood for the domestic market, said at present there are 13 local seafood firms that have succeeded in selling their products through the Co.opMart supermarket system in the domestic market.

This year, four more firms will join the system, she said.

Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam (Vietnam Economic Times) newspaper quoted Co.opMart officials as saying the businesses should offer new and special products to customers to compete with their rivals.

The association for enterprises providing seafood for the domestic market was set up this year to create favourable conditions for local firms in promoting domestic seafood consumption, Sac said, adding it has attracted 30 companies to cooperate in improving the quality and quantity of products.

However, experts of the fisheries industry say Vietnamese customers have hard-to-change habits in buying fresh seafood products, and this makes it difficult to promote frozen and processed ones.

Those frozen products have been mainly sold at supermarkets in large cities and provinces. At traditional fish markets, traders find it difficult to invest in refrigeration equipment and warn that such extra costs would result in increases in the prices of the products.-VNA