Agricultural processing companies maintain export markets

Despite 70 per cent of agricultural processing companies having to suspend export export activities and the remaining 30 per cent having to operate at less-than-capacity due to Covid-19, some still overcame the difficulties, maintained export market share, and recorded stable revenue and profits.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country currently has more than 2,100 medium and large-scale agricultural product processing enterprises. In which, more than 1,600 businesses had to shut down processing plants during the time of social distancing. The rest is also mainly produced in moderation to keep export orders.

Mr. Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the main bottleneck lies on the local side, because agricultural enterprises have a large area of ​​operation, they have to move many places to link between the highlands and the countryside. materials with processing zones, but each province is dealing with a type in the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic.

PERMANENTLY KEEPING THE PANGASIAN MARKET ROUND

According to the Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), businesses in the pangasius industry are struggling with a series of costs and escalating prices.

Essential products for production all increased from 5% to 25%, especially equipment for processors such as gloves, food safety and hygiene equipment to prevent diseases.

In addition, aqua feed increased by 15-20%, freight charges increased by 5-10 times, packaging also increased... These factors are huge challenges for the seafood industry in general, pangasius said. exclusively to maintain the supply chain. 

Faced with such piling up difficulties, some businesses have found every solution to overcome, to maintain production. A typical example in the pangasius industry is Vinh Hoan Seafood Joint Stock Company.

This business has long been the largest pangasius exporter to the US market and operates four of the 13 pangasius processing plants approved by the US Department of Agriculture to export pangasius to the US.

At the end of June 2021, the US Department of Commerce announced the results of the 16th review of Vietnamese pangasius shipments imported to the US from August 1, 2018 to the end of July 31, 2019, Vinh Hoan and Nam Viet Joint Stock Company are two Vietnamese pangasius enterprises that are not subject to anti-dumping tax on pangasius to the US.

This is also an opportunity for these two businesses to promote pangasius exports to the US market, taking advantage of the existing customer file.

According to Ms. Truong Thi Le Khanh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vinh Hoan Seafood Joint Stock Company, Vinh Hoan's pangasius export turnover to the US this year increased sharply. This market improved significantly due to the re-opening of restaurants as well as the food service industry after the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The growth in the US market helped Vinh Hoan partially offset the decline in the European market (down 25%) and the Chinese market (down 12%). In the first half of 2021, Vinh Hoan's net revenue reached VND 4,131 billion, up 25% compared to the first half of last year; Profit after tax increased by 4%.

This year, Vinh Hoan sets a target of consolidated revenue of VND 8,600 billion, up 22% and profit after tax of VND 700 billion, down 3% compared to 2020.  

From August and September, due to the impact of social distancing to prevent the Covid-19 epidemic in many provinces of the Mekong Delta, Vinh Hoan's seafood processing activities faced many difficulties. However, Vinh Hoan still maintained production, so the revenue decreased insignificantly.

In August 2021, Vinh Hoan recorded VND 705 billion in revenue, down 8% compared to July. In which, the main contribution was still the pangasius segment, accounting for over 67% of total revenue, up 16% compared to that of July. same period last year.

The most remarkable mark of Vinh Hoan Seafood is that while most of the agricultural product processing enterprises had to stop operating for many months, this company put into operation a new factory right at the time of relaxation. social way.

In August 2021, Vinh Hoan's Sa Giang processing factory started production, with many products such as pho, vermicelli, rice cakes, shrimp puffs... consumed in many domestic supermarkets, already became "leverage" to increase domestic market revenue of this enterprise by 63%.

In 2021, Vinh Hoan also just established Thanh Ngoc Fruit Company, with a charter capital of 100 billion VND, the main business is producing juice from vegetables and processing and preserving vegetables. 

At the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in 2021, Vinh Hoan also announced that it plans to invest 700 billion VND to build an animal feed factory, Vinh Hoan hatchery and own land for a high-tech agricultural and aquatic complex. in Dong Thap.

DOVECO EXPANDING AREA OF MATERIALS

As a bright enterprise in the field of fruit and vegetable export, Dong Giao Export Food Joint Stock Company (DOVECO) also does not accept being "subdued" before the pandemic.

At the Forum on connecting production and consumption of agricultural products in the Central Highlands in 2021 organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently, Mr. Dinh Cao Khue, Chairman of the Board of Directors of DOVECO Company, said that Recently, DOVECO was also affected by the Covid-19 epidemic like other businesses.

Not only is it difficult in the stage of purchasing and transporting raw materials in the country due to social distancing, but the biggest difficulty of DOVECO now comes from the high cost of exporting fresh fruits and vegetables, deep processing. Specifically, the cost of exporting to the US market increased 13 times and the cost of exporting to Europe increased 12 times.

On average, DOVECO processes about 200-250 tons of fruits of all kinds per day. DOVECO's products are exported to 55 countries, focusing mainly on markets such as the US, the Netherlands, Israel, Germany and Japan.

"However, so far, DOVECO's fruit production, processing and export stages in Ninh Binh, Son La as well as the Central Highlands have maintained stable and unbroken operations," said Khue. 

From the initial "headquarters" in Dong Giao - Ninh Binh, DOVECO continuously expanded its operation area to many areas across the country, built a methodical raw material area, signed fruit products for farmers. people. Currently in the Central Highlands, the company has 11,000 ha of passion fruit growing area to supply 4 processing factories.

“Vietnam's passion fruit products only meet 20-30% of the world's demand, so there is still plenty of room to expand export markets. In addition, in the Central Highlands today, DOVECO has 1,200 hectares of pineapple plantations in Gia Lai. It took only 9 months to process and process. Besides, DOVECO is also having a large demand for Taiwanese mango, acacia mango, avocado…”, Mr. Dinh Cao Khue shared.

One of the hallmarks of DOVECO in 2021 is the start of construction of a cluster of fruit processing factories in Tien Giang province. This will be DOVECO's 3rd fruit and vegetable processing factory cluster, after modern fruit and vegetable processing centers in Ninh Binh province (32,000 tons/year) and Gia Lai province (50,000 tons/year).

DOVECO's project in Tien Giang province has an investment of VND 500 billion, designed capacity of 150,000 tons of processed products and 200,000 tons of fresh fruit for export. Processed and exported products include: concentrated fruit juice (passion, pineapple, mango), puree juice products (passion, mango, banana, dragon fruit, custard apple), frozen fruit and vegetable products (pineapple). , mango, dragon fruit, sweet corn, okra, vegetable soybean...), canned fruit and vegetable products (sweet corn, pineapple), flexible dried products (mango, dragon fruit, pineapple, passion fruit).