Seafood enterprises strive to produce and export in the second half of the year

Trade barriers

Representing seafood businesses at the recently held all-member conference, Mr. Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said the export forecast Aquaculture in the future will be full of challenges.

Among them, the global economic crisis; the escalating situation of world armed conflicts; reduced world consumer demand... has impacted production costs, logistics activities, and supply chain disruptions, affecting seafood consumption in major Vietnamese seafood markets.

Along with that, many trade barriers are also "blocking" businesses' exports.

At the end of 2023, the American Shrimp Processors Association filed a request for an anti-subsidy investigation on warm water shrimp from four countries: India, Ecuador, Indonesia and Vietnam. Accordingly, the US Department of Commerce investigated anti-subsidy on Vietnamese shrimp with more than 40 programs. Preliminary investigation results are available at 2.84% and shrimp exporting businesses must deposit deposits from April 2024. It is expected that in August 2024 there will be final results and in October 2024, the International Trade Center (ITC) will vote to evaluate the investigation results.

Besides, there is fierce competition among countries exporting whitefish products in the world, requiring Vietnamese pangasius exporting enterprises to have a reasonable marketing strategy, increase awareness and promote their pangasius image.

In particular, the EC Inspection Team assessed that Vietnam had not yet removed the IUU yellow card 4 times, and is expected to conduct a 5th inspection in October 2024.

Mr. Nguyen Nam Vinh, Deputy General Director of Huy Nam Co., Ltd. said that the EU continues to keep the "yellow card" warning for the Vietnamese fishing industry, causing seafood products entering the EU market to be kept.

According to Mr. Vinh, not only tightening IUU regulations in seafood fishing, the EU currently applies many recommendations and control measures in food hygiene and safety management such as: banning irradiation, banning the use of Chlorate-based disinfectant chemicals while many other markets still allow residue at controlled levels.

Solve the problem of increased freight rates

One of the difficulties mentioned by businesses is the sharp increase in shipping rates.

Mr. Do Ngoc Tai, General Director of Tai Kim Anh Seafood Processing Joint Stock Company, said that freight rates for transporting goods to the US increased dramatically by 40% from May 2024; Ship freight to the EU increased by 60%... due to the war in the Middle East and China gathering empty containers to reserve goods for export to the US before the new tax deadline.

Also affected by shipping rates, Mr. Nguyen Nam Vinh said that currently, shipping rates have increased dramatically due to war and instability in the Red Sea region. In particular, the scarcity of empty containers and shipping lines working together to raise prices arbitrarily makes exports unstable and risky.

From the above reality, businesses propose to conduct surveys and organize forums to discuss supply chain and export disruptions that may occur for commodity industries...

In addition, to remove barriers and promote exports, VASEP leaders said that it is necessary to focus on key activities related to reform of administrative procedures and regulations on safety control of food hygiene, quality, and sustainability certification of export markets, compliance regulations related to labor, tax and environment.

For the shrimp industry, increase connection activities. In particular, learn from experiences from other countries to achieve the goal of shrimp export contributing over 40% to seafood export turnover in the coming years.

The shrimp industry needs to focus on raw material issues and reduce costs; linking with shrimp seed chains, food production... to support farming activities; export enterprises participating in farm-scale shrimp farming.

Faced with the situation of pangasius export results to China in the first 4 months of 2024 decreasing by about 30%, with Beijing, Zhejiang and Liaoning having the sharpest decline, it is necessary to carry out focused promotion and marketing of pangasius products in China and Spain in 2024–2025.

It is necessary to assess risks and take specific measures to effectively respond and overcome anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits such as: market economic factors affecting the results of lawsuits; the risk of additional plaintiffs participating in lawsuits; risks if the anti-subsidy lawsuit cannot be overcome.

Raise awareness about green trade, reducing emissions in seafood processing and export, circular economy, and regenerative agriculture. Green economy is associated with mandatory requirements of markets; carbon emission reduction programs at the corporate level...