Fishermen are cautious about applying technology to product preservation.

(Baonghean) - In recent years, along with investment in upgrading offshore fishing equipment, the application of preservation technology to both ensure seafood quality and save fishing costs is a matter of great concern for fishermen.

"Necessity binds wisdom"

The new preservation technology originated from Japan and has been applied by fishermen in countries with developed seafood exploitation and catching industries such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc. for quite a long time. When transferred to Vietnam, fishermen in the provinces were very excited, even in Thanh Hoa, nearly 100% of newly built boats were equipped with new technology preservation tanks, but fishermen in Nghe An were still quite cautious.

Traditional preservation technology is applied by the majority of fishermen.

Currently, Nghe An has thousands of fishing boats but fishermen are preserving them using traditional technology. That is, the caught seafood is put into plastic trays or foam boxes, each layer of fish is sprinkled with a layer of ice (crushed) and placed in a common hold under the boat; similarly, if it is salted fish to make fish sauce, each layer of fish is sprinkled with a layer of salt. The advantage of this method is that it is easy to do and the initial investment is not large. The disadvantage is that because the foam boxes are not airtight, the cold retention is not long, so many boats only fish for a few weeks before having to return to shore, leading to increased costs.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Dong Tien village, Quynh Lap commune, Hoang Mai town said: his family has a 600 CV boat, each 2-week sea trip costs about 100 million VND, of which the cost of fuel accounts for 60%, now the price of fuel has decreased but still accounts for nearly half (the rest is the cost of food and labor for the crew). If the preservation conditions are good, the value of a sea trip will increase by one and a half times, double, but if the preservation conditions are not guaranteed, it is often necessary to shorten it because if we do not return in time, the seafood will spoil...

Fish are preserved using traditional technology at Quynh Lap fishing port.

However, the initial cost of investing in a cold storage using new technology is not small. If the shell is made of stainless steel, the installation cost is about 500 - 700 thousand VND/m2; if it is made of wood, it is more expensive, about 2 million VND/m2; a boat with a hold of about 10 - 12 m3, equivalent to about 12 tons of fish, costs about 200 - 300 million VND; if the ship is larger, the cost is higher.

Directly attending a training session on transferring new preservation technology to fishermen organized by the Fisheries Association in collaboration with the National Agricultural Extension Center in Nghe An not long ago, most fishermen realized that the new technology has many advantages but are showing some reservations. This is the reason why newly built boats under Decree 67/CP have only built new preservation tanks, while fishing boats invested in installing new preservation tanks are still quite modest.

Inevitable trend

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Lung - Head of Fisheries Extension Department, National Fisheries Extension Center, who is also a consultant on transferring and installing new preservation technology, said: Currently, seafood catching technology has changed fundamentally and fishing equipment is getting bigger so fishermen can fish further offshore for longer periods. In addition, fishermen have long used low-productivity vertical detectors, but now they have switched to horizontal detectors and seines, so the fishing productivity is higher. Therefore, larger and better preservation pits are needed. Currently, we are encouraging fishermen to go offshore to catch large, high-value seafood for sale to foreign markets. In order to access large markets, one of the requirements is that the preservation stage must ensure food safety and hygiene.

Mr. Nguyen Si Thiet, hamlet 2, Phuc Tho commune, Nghi Loc district, is one of the first 10 ship owners to build a new storage tank using the new Pu Foam technology. He said that his family had just invested 6.58 billion VND to build a new ship with a capacity of 500 CV 7 months ago. After being advised, he decided to invest nearly 300 million VND to build 2 new tanks using the new technology, each tank is 6 m3. Since investing in a storage tank for the ship, the products have been preserved for a whole month without running out of ice. There were even times when the engine was not running (saving more oil), but the ice still did not melt, the fishing time was longer, so the value of each sea trip increased on average from 200 million VND/trip to 250 million VND/trip.

Quynh Long fishermen buy crushed ice and put it in the freezer to preserve seafood using traditional technology.

If the product is preserved using traditional technology, the preservation ratio is 100 kg of ice can preserve 60 kg of fish, but with the new PU Poam technology, 100 kg of ice can preserve up to 95 kg of fish, so the economic value is much higher. Also according to Mr. Nguyen Van Lung - National Agricultural Extension Center, with the support of the Vietnam Fisheries Association, the National Agricultural Extension Center has organized 2 training courses to transfer new preservation technology processes to over 100 fishermen in Nghe An. After a period of training and transfer, up to now, in addition to the boats built according to Decree 67/CP, most of which have to build cold storage using new technology, he has advised and installed 13 boats of fishermen in Quynh Luu, Dien Chau, Nghi Loc districts to build new cold storage using PU Poam technology. However, the installation of storage using new technology is still quite cautious.

Nguyen Hai