Seafood export: Has bottomed and is recovering

Enterprises, farming, production and processing establishments need to carefully prepare documents and update regulations of markets to meet the increasing requirements of export markets. Photo: N.THANH

Output continues to increase, exports fall deeply

According to information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first 6 months of the year, the weather situation is relatively favorable for aquaculture and fishing. Petrol prices are stable and tend to decrease, creating conditions for fishermen to feel secure and actively participate in sea fishing in all sea areas to organize seafood exploitation. The situation of production, export, import and consumption of aquatic products has recovered and developed relatively stably. However, besides the advantages, in the first 6 months of the year, the seafood industry also faced many difficulties and challenges due to the impact of the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict, along with the consequences of the pandemic. Covid-19 from the previous year caused the world economy to recover more slowly than previously forecast. In addition, high inflation in many countries and territories has caused people to tighten spending, and global consumption demand has dropped sharply, including seafood products, leading to difficulties in seafood export operation.

Domestically, the prices of some goods and inputs for aquaculture development are still high, and high logistics costs also put pressure on production activities, especially when consumption demand slows down and production scale is narrowed; There is a partial shortage of human resources working in processing factories, affecting production and business activities of seafood enterprises and people involved in the production chain.

In addition, the situation of drought, saltwater intrusion in the Mekong Delta, and environmental pollution are still complicated, affecting the efficiency of aquaculture. The European Commission continues to keep the "Yellow card" warning for Vietnamese fishery products...

A report by the Department of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) showed that by the end of June 2023, the total fishery production reached 4.27 million tons, up 1.7% over the same period in 2022. (4.2 million tons), reaching 47.2% of the plan (9.05 million tons), of which the fishing output reached 1.934 million tons, up 0.2% (1.93 million tons), the production aquaculture production reached more than 2,336 million tons, up 3% (2.27 million tons). Compared with the target of the whole year 2023, the total fishery output reached 47.2% (9.05 million tons); in which fishing production reached 52.5% (3.68 million tons), aquaculture production reached 43.5% (5.37 million tons). The value of seafood export turnover in the first 6 months was estimated at 4.13 billion USD, down 27.4% over the same period in 2022 (5.25 billion USD) and reaching 41.3% of the plan (10 billion USD).

Assessing the above figures, Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the Department of Fisheries emphasized, although the output and area of aquaculture in the first 6 months of the year still maintained growth momentum, seafood exports decreased. deep, it can be said that the bottom has been reached and is gradually showing signs of recovery. According to Nguyen Van Trung, Head of the Department of Fishing Vessel Management and Fisheries Logistics Services (Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), although the number of fishing boats has decreased relatively, the catch is still increasing. The cause is said to be a long time of the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, high oil prices, ships lying on the shore for a long time, so far, the epidemic has been controlled, oil prices have decreased along with the weather in the first 6 months of the year is relatively favorable for fishermen to exploit at sea. Prices of caught seafood products tend to increase slightly.

Take advantage of the opportunity in the remaining months

Commenting on the situation of seafood export, Le Ba Anh, Deputy Director of the Department of Quality, Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) said that in the past 6 months, the number of seafood export orders returned due to food safety violations have decreased significantly. However, in the near future, there will be a lot of inspection teams to inspect food safety conditions of other countries to Vietnam to conduct inspection. Therefore, enterprises, farming, production and processing establishments need to carefully prepare documents and update regulations of markets to meet the increasing requirements of export markets. In the context of very difficult competition from the market, direct competitors such as Ecuador, India, etc. have stabilized supply, competed on price, businesses need to have a strategy and perform well regulations of the export market to maintain export market share and position.

In order to achieve the set target of the seafood industry in 2023, Nguyen Van Trung said that in the last months of the year, the aquaculture sector will face a lot of pressure, including both output and export targets, specifically, output must increase over the first 6 months of the year by 1 million tons (reaching 3.03 million tons).

“Along with the signals and forecasts of the export market in the coming months, the direction and operation of the management agencies and localities must closely follow, grasp the situation of market price movements, forecast changes in demand of the consumer market, timely information to local authorities, businesses and farmers with stocking plans and appropriate solutions in the production organization. Actively source raw materials, ensure raw materials for processing and export when the market is prosperous, to avoid passivity and shortages at the peak to serve orders during the holiday season and Tet Holiday," said the Director of the Department of Fisheries.

Besides, Luan also pointed out the difficulties and challenges that the industry needs to focus on solving in the last 6 months of the year such as: closely monitoring weather developments, environmental pollution, epidemic situation tends to increase; the issue of water surface allocation in marine aquaculture; working conditions on fishing vessels; food safety at fishing ports; import markets constantly impose strict conditions on food safety; animal welfare; seek an origin; labor issues in the fisheries sector. In the coming time, the inspection teams of importing countries will strengthen inspection and inspection at the farming, production and processing facilities of Vietnamese enterprises. In which, prepare to receive the delegation of the Food Safety Inspection Agency (FSIS) of the US Department of Agriculture to assess the similarity of Vietnam's catfish food safety control.