Nghe An shrimp and fish products have not yet entered demanding markets.

(Baonghean) - Nghe An's shrimp and fish products are currently only exported to 'easy' markets such as China, Laos, and Malaysia, but have not yet met the strict standards of 'difficult' markets.

» Nghe An people get rich from fishing logistics services

For a long time, Nghe An fishermen have been exploiting the Gulf of Tonkin with many key fishing grounds such as Bach Long Vy, Co To, Hon Me, Hon Mat... However, although there are many valuable marine products, seafood products are identified as one of the items with export advantages, but in reality, the average annual value of aquatic and seafood production in Nghe An is not high, only reaching 7.5-8% of the economic value of the whole province; reaching about 15 million USD in export turnover; meanwhile, the world market demand is relatively high and stable.

Transporting seafood onto freezer trucks. Photo: PH

Nghe An shrimp and fish products are currently only exported to “easy” markets such as China, Laos, and Malaysia; because our seafood products have not yet really met the strict standards when wanting to enter “difficult” markets, the proper preservation of products is still limited, reducing the quality and ensuring food hygiene and safety for seafood.

In recent years, with the support of the State, fishermen have invested in PU tanks to preserve fish, but the actual quantity has not met the demand. While markets such as the EU, the US, and Japan have very strict requirements in ensuring food safety, most of the seafood businesses in the province are small businesses, with weak production, processing, and preservation machinery and equipment, and have not been able to control chemical residues, antibiotics, and residues in seafood.

In addition, the province's export units are still limited in searching and creating markets; the processing process is still heavily manual, traditional, small-scale production, lacking connections between businesses. According to Mr. Hoang Nghia Hieu - Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, it is easy to see that the types of official export products are still limited and monotonous, not really focused on exploitation and production according to a closed value chain with synchronous solutions from exploitation to processing and export, and in fact, the province's official seafood exports are mainly fishmeal used for livestock farming with low value.

Also because the closed value chain has not been built, even if there are orders, collecting to have the quantity of goods to meet the needs of customers is very difficult. Almost all businesses have not built a specific export strategy, researched market demand to be able to connect, orient exploitation and business in a long-term and proactive way.

There used to be many processing facilities in the province, including two large-scale frozen seafood processing companies: Nghe An II Seafood Import-Export Joint Stock Company (capacity of 8-10 tons of products/day), meeting export standards to demanding markets such as the EU and the US, and Nghe An Seafood Import-Export Joint Stock Company with a capacity of 5-6 tons/day. In addition, a number of other frozen processing facilities have also invested in facilities, machinery and equipment such as freezers, transport vehicles, cold storage, etc.

Shrimp processing at Nghe An II Seafood Joint Stock Company. Photo: Van Hai

However, the processing and export of aquatic and seafood products in Nghe An is developing slowly. Currently, some private enterprises such as Phuong Mai and Kim Lien (Hoang Mai Town) are processing products for export to China through informal channels, but only in the form of preliminary processing, so their competitiveness is low. Or Van Phan Seafood Joint Stock Company (Dien Chau) has exported a quantity of fish sauce to Laos, Malaysia... the remaining processed products are mainly serving domestic consumption and being sold as input materials for processing enterprises outside the province. Meanwhile, in the domestic market, the market for traditional products in Nghe An is gradually shrinking due to fierce competition from enterprises outside the province.

Processing anchovies for sale to the Chinese market in Quynh Di (Hoang Mai Town). Photo: Phu Huong

In the export market, Nghe An has 2 units granted codes for export, but currently only Nghe An II Seafood Import-Export Joint Stock Company is qualified to export products to demanding markets such as the EU, Russia, the US, Japan... and Southeast Asian countries, and due to difficulties in capital resources, the annual value of processed export products of this enterprise only reaches over 5 million USD, processed products are all sold to export processing factories in the South and not exported directly. This is also the only export processing enterprise in the province currently operating.

On the other hand, demanding markets such as the EU, Russia, the US, Japan, etc. and Southeast Asian countries are potential markets and bring high economic profits. However, direct export to this market requires not only quality but also large financial capacity to ensure signing economic contracts, while Nghe An enterprises cannot meet the requirements, so official export accounts for a very small proportion of export value.

Phu Huong