Nghe An seafood enterprises are not interested in preferential loans.

Fisheries face many difficulties

The global economic fluctuations and the decline in export orders have caused difficulties in the market for aquatic and seafood products. Aquatic enterprises are under a lot of pressure as the market shrinks, inventories increase, and costs are burdened.

Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong Thanh - owner of Ngoc Thanh cold storage in Phu Lien village, Quynh Long commune, Quynh Luu district said, currently we have a lot of unsold goods, so we only buy in moderation, the cold storage is only operating at 30% capacity. My facility is borrowing capital to solve employment problems from the Policy Bank but the capital is small. To develop production, my family also wants to borrow capital with preferential interest rates, but after researching, we do not meet the loan conditions.

At the Xuri Viet Trung Fishmeal Processing Factory in Dien Chau, with a capacity of 240 tons of raw materials per day, the export output from the beginning of the year to date has reached 5,000 tons exported to the Chinese market. Mr. Le Thai - Director of Xuri Viet Trung Seafood By-product Processing Company Limited said: To serve production and business, we borrowed capital from local banks with outstanding loans of tens of billions of VND, with an interest rate for export enterprises of 8%/year. This year, the price of fishmeal has increased, at the beginning of the year it was 24,000 VND/kg, now it is 40,000 VND/kg, due to the high demand of animal feed processing factories. Product prices have increased, but the current difficulty is that input materials have also increased, scarcity has affected the production of the unit.

At this time, many ponds of members of Van Thanh and Dien Van Aquaculture Cooperatives have not reached their stocking output, and their farming areas have also been reduced, down 20% compared to before. Some ponds were damaged after the recent power outage and are now unable to reinvest. People said that input costs have increased, selling prices have decreased, and people do not have money to invest in production. Meanwhile, borrowing from banks is difficult because they do not meet all the required conditions.

Mr. Tran Van Quy - Director of Van Thanh Aquaculture Cooperative, Dien Van, Dien Chau said that currently aquaculture is very difficult, with many failures. People invest sparingly, only borrow small amounts, not meeting production needs. The cooperative does not have land titles, does not have collateral to borrow capital, especially interest rate support programs...

There was a time when shrimp farmers were profitable, the market was stable, and the shrimp farming area of ​​the whole province reached over 2,300 hectares. However, for many months now, shrimp prices have dropped sharply, costs have increased, and shrimp farming has been at a loss, forcing many households to "hang up their ponds and abandon their ponds".

Needremove difficulties,boost lending

Implementing the Government's direction, on July 14, 2023, in Document No. 5631, the State Bank directed commercial banks and State Bank branches in provinces and cities to implement a lending program for the forestry and fishery sector with a credit capital of about VND 15,000 billion, the implementation period is until June 30, 2024. The lending interest rate is at least 1-2% lower per year than the average lending interest rate for the same term.

In addition, commercial banks also exempt and reduce service fees for customers participating in this program, in accordance with legal regulations and the scale of the bank's operations. This program is expected to create a breakthrough for exports in the last months of the year.

The State Bank said that the program is implemented with self-mobilized capital from banks and lending is carried out according to normal commercial mechanisms. There are 12 commercial banks that have registered to participate in the program, including: Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade, Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank, Saigon - Hanoi Commercial Joint Stock Bank.

According to the State Bank of Vietnam, Nghe An branch, along with a series of monetary, credit and interest rate solutions that have been implemented in the past, the implementation of the lending program for the forestry and fishery sector continues to demonstrate the spirit of the banking sector in supporting people and businesses to overcome difficulties and maintain production and business activities. This activity is in line with the policy of the Government and the Prime Minister on removing difficulties, supporting production and business and promoting growth drivers of the economy. Currently, outstanding loans for the agricultural and rural sectors and rural areas of Nghe An are estimated at 122,600 billion VND, accounting for 43% of outstanding loans in the whole area. As for the 15,000 billion VND package for lending to the forestry and fishery sector, banks in the province have participated in the implementation, but after more than 2 months, according to reports from the bank, there are still no customers eligible to access this loan package.

According to research, the reason is that the general situation of enterprises during this period is very difficult. The source of preferential interest rate credit for aquatic enterprises in particular and the agricultural export sector in general is quite abundant but the outstanding debt is not high. Not only the 15,000 billion VND package for forestry and aquatic products, but before that, banks had offered many preferential loan packages but enterprises were not interested. Some establishments wanting to borrow capital did not meet the loan conditions.

In the first 8 months of the year, Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company, Dien Chau, sold more than 800,000 liters of fish sauce, with a turnover of 12 billion VND, of which the domestic market accounted for 60%, and 40% was exported to Japan. Sharing about the need for capital loans for production and business of the unit, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Lan - Director of Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company said that in order to develop production and business as well as meet export standards to the Japanese and Korean markets, the company has planned to rebuild the factory, install production lines with a total estimated investment of 100 billion VND. However, the enterprise does not borrow capital from the bank but uses capital contributed by shareholders. "The conditions for bank loans, especially preferential interest rate programs, are very strict, the procedures and standards are high, so it is very difficult to access; for a long time, we have mobilized capital from shareholders of investors for production and business", Mr. Lan shared.

Some seafood businesses shared: Recently, banks have continuously introduced policies to help businesses overcome difficulties. The fact that banks have both supported debt repayment extensions and offered preferential interest rate loan packages has created quite good conditions for businesses to borrow credit capital to purchase raw materials to prepare for year-end orders. However, after the difficulties of the current Covid-19 pandemic, most of them have run out of collateral and credit limits...

Mr. Vo Huy Ha - Director of Vietinbank Cua Lo town said that up to now, the bank's outstanding loans for the forestry and fishery sector are 1,000 billion VND; however, the bank has implemented and reviewed the 15,000 billion VND program, and so far there has been no outstanding loan. "There are many programs for forestry and fishery loans, customers will choose the best program to borrow. Due to the recent difficulties in production and business in the fisheries sector, poor circulation of goods, and many establishments have reduced production, so up to now, no customers have borrowed capital from this program" - Mr. Ha shared.

Faced with market fluctuations, more than ever, policies to support businesses, including the fisheries sector, are essential. However, conditions and procedures need to be closer to reality to help people and businesses feel secure in production and business. Only then will the Government's policies to remove difficulties, support production and business, and promote economic growth drivers be effective.