Green seafood enterprises are the best choice for sustainable exports

Processing seafood for export at Sao Ta JSC

Green manufacturing enterprise

According to Ho Quoc Luc, Director of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, the movement to make roof voltage is quite popular among seafood processing and exporting enterprises. This contributes to the use of renewable electricity. The additional part that needs to be compensated to meet the criteria must be solved in the macro-level preparation.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is very interested in this issue when renewable electricity is focused on growth and synchronization.

Improving energy efficiency has been focused on by seafood businesses for nearly 20 years through clean production programs, with an emphasis on saving electricity and water. Saving water is also the fourth criterion of efficient and economical use of resources.

In criterion three, recycling and circulation, seafood enterprises are performing quite well. Typically, fish and shrimp by-products become raw materials to produce useful products, not letting by-products cause harm to the environment but also creating value to improve operational efficiency. Seafood packaging is also easy to recycle because it is only paper and plastic, contributing to reducing waste in the environment.

Guiding green production is not only for businesses but also needs the cooperation of the whole industry. According to Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, in order to ensure the green transformation of the seafood industry, it is necessary to implement core goals, such as expanding the sustainable aquaculture model with effective management of all fisheries and upgrading value chains in the aquafeed system.

Over the next 10 years, the goal of aquaculture must be to expand sustainably to meet the global aquafeed demand gap, especially in food-deficient regions, while generating income and new jobs. This requires updating aquaculture management by promoting planning, legal and institutional frameworks and policies.

According to Ho Quoc Luc, it should also be noted that green businesses are not enough, because the links in the value chain are closely related to each other and affect each other significantly.

To do this requires businesses in the chain to be green and synchronous. Enterprises supplying seed, feed, farming products, and farming establishments must have specific criteria for implementation and consistency throughout the chain. If this requirement is met, it will certainly increase the strong competitiveness of Vietnam's seafood industry.

Currently, VCCI has a set of sustainable business criteria (CSI) as the foundation for becoming a green business. Seafood enterprises that can follow the direction of implementing this set of criteria will soon meet their expectations instead of waiting for the industry's own set of criteria.

Sustainable export

Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, Honorary Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, said that climate change poses an urgent requirement for environmental protection, towards green production for sustainable export.

Citing examples from EU countries, Minh said that the EU has once again pioneered the issue of standards. In 2019, the EU launched the European Green Deal (EGD) campaign.

Among the core regulations, what stands out is the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F - a fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system). F2F aims to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030, reduce the sales of antibiotics to animals by 50%, and reduce the use of fertilizers by at least 20%; 25% of agricultural land is converted to organic production. The EU will move to ask other countries to do the same or else it will tax the environment.

So, what will Vietnamese seafood do to overcome this barrier? Waiting for the regulations of the importing country to comply with the implementation at a considerable cost, then passively depend or businesses will take the initiative to take this challenge to build a green brand of Vietnamese seafood on the basis of a set of products.

At the same time, building a seafood business community together to build, protect and develop a green seafood community on the basis of a common code of conduct, and at the same time contribute to the preservation of the common healthy environment.

So, with the EU about to impose F2F on imported food, instead of waiting for them to impose it, Vietnamese businesses should actively build a business community on the basis of appropriate standards, which is shown by green labels, coordination and sharing on the basis of code of conduct, implementation of marketing-communication programs to appropriate consumers, which is an opportunity for seafood to build a truly green food production community.

According to a representative of VASEP, the evidence shows that implementing a green export strategy not only helps businesses gain a mark of competitive advantage but also enhances financial performance.

The seafood processing industry should actively switch to a green export strategy to capture these advantages and enhance competitiveness in export markets.

However, in order to adopt such a strategy, managers' "environmental sensitivity" plays a key role, so managers need to increase their sensitivity and commitment to environmental issues, especially in the export department of enterprises.