Shortage of raw materials in fishery processing factories

The demand for raw materials for the domestic market and export processing increased sharply at the end of the year, so fishermen persisted in clinging to the sea for opportunities to increase their income.

The demand for Vietnamese tuna exports to the US, Europe, and Canada in the last months of the year all increased sharply. Photo: K.S.

Mr. Vo Khac En, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Fisheries Sub-Department, said that the province has 747 offshore fishing vessels. After the province controlled the epidemic and eased social distancing, offshore fishing vessels in the area, in turn, pushed off again.

Specifically, up to now, 80% of boats have pushed off to exploit seafood. Of which, only about 60% of tuna fishing vessels have set sail. The remaining ships are expected to push off between mid-November and early December, which is this time of the official tuna fishing season.

According to Mr. En, usually at the end of the year, the demand for raw materials for the domestic seafood market and export processing increases. The whole province of Khanh Hoa has 149 fishery production and processing establishments for domestic consumption and 57 fishery production and processing establishments for export, which are certified by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The tuna fishing ships in the province can't meet demands, so businesses are in shortage of raw materials and must buy from other provinces and import seafood materials from abroad to meet orders. If fishermen cling to the sea at the end of the year, they will have the opportunity to increase their income.

Just like fishery processing facilities in Quang Ngai province lack processing materials, at this time, seafood enterprises in Khanh Hoa province need to purchase raw materials for processing for export due to a lot of orders.

Mr. Huynh Dac Tri, Director of T&H Nha Trang Co., Ltd., a seafood processing and export enterprise, said that the demand for Vietnamese tuna exports to the US, Europe, and Canada in the last months of the year all increased sharply.

Recently, the supply chain of raw materials for seafood processing factories has been severely affected causing by the Covid-19 epidemic. The main reason is that fishing boats cannot push off.

"Currently, customers from Europe and the US have a high demand to find partners to supply seafood products due to supply disruptions. Now raw material prices, especially the freight rate for shipping, increased sharply to US$ 20,000 for each container to Europe and the US, but customers still accept it.

As for retail customers who can't pay the shipping fee, they will be in shortage of raw materials," Mr. Tri shared. Due to the customer bearing the cost, his business is more prosperous than a few months ago. However, the current problem of enterprises is still a lack of raw materials, a shortage of workers, and the risk of the disease returning.

Mr. Tri's company has now received enough orders to process and export tuna, so it plans to boost production continuously from now until early next year. Another advantage of the company is that the workers have returned to work fully.

However, to solve the shortage of raw materials to meet export demand and promote the purchase of domestic materials, the company will also have to import more materials from China, Korea. Because on average, each month, T&H Nha Trang Co., Ltd. exports from 15-20 tuna containers to the US, Canada, and Europe markets.

Similarly, Tin Thinh Co., Ltd., an enterprise specializing in purchasing, processing, and exporting striped tuna, also needs raw materials to export to the US market.

According to Tin Thinh Co., Ltd., currently, the US market has an extreme consumption demand. But at this time, the ships have just set sail again, so the business does not have raw materials to purchase. Therefore, the Company is studying to switch to processing other types of fish such as tilapia, grouper, etc., to solve output for farmers and create jobs for factory workers.

In the first nine months of 2021, seafood activities were severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. Large fishing ports such as Hon Ro and Vinh Luong (Nha Trang City) were temporarily blocked for many months, making it impossible for many fishing vessels to push off. As a result, the province's total seafood production reached more than 92,724 tonnes, down 0.29% over the same period last year. Of which, fishery production was 82,068.2 tonnes, down 0.18% over the previous year's same period.

Mr. Vo Khac En said: "To help fishermen feel secure to cling to the sea, the Sub-department will regularly update and monitor the weather situation to promptly notify fishermen to stay safe when a tropical depression or storm appears at sea.

Along with that, we arrange a 24-hour duty force to closely monitor fishing vessels operating at sea through tracking equipment connected to the shore station, to give timely warnings to fishing vessels on the risk of infringing on foreign waters.

In addition, we will strictly control fishing vessels in and out of the port, control the output of seafood unloading through the port to ensure a chain, check and compare data between relevant parties, compare with national fisheries database, fishing vessel tracking system to better serve the traceability of caught seafood according to regulations".