Vinh Hoan CEO urges pangasius sector to embrace change

During a conference on the pangasius sector held on the sidelines of Vietfish 2017, Vinh Hoan CEO Tam Nguyen urged the industry to embrace modernization and professionalization in an effort to improve sales.

Vinh Hoan has been proposing the idea of an alliance between pangasius exporters, and perhaps Europe’s importers as well, for some time. Europe was something of a stagnant market for the species even before a Spanish television documentary earlier this year, which was slammed by the seafood sector for being inaccurate.

Her firm had conducted a survey of its customers, said Tam, and found that many find communicating with the Vietnamese industry in general challenging. To this end she urged companies to invest in better English-language corporate sites and even social media, as well as more regular market information in English from Vietnam’s Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

On the product side of things, Tam spoke of the need for more of a graded option — from standard up to premium (Vinh Hoan itself has been working on “Premium Pangasius Fillets”, a top-of-the-line range).

She called for more consistency of product, especially when it comes to glazing levels, so that pricing and quality can find a balance without cheaper, lower quality items coming in and undercutting higher quality ones in a “race to the bottom”.