New long-term strategy needed for pangasius industry

Vietnam's pangasius industry has been struggling from the impact of Covid-19, with many businesses having to cease production and transport networks being interrupted. It is therefore necessary to build a new long-term development strategy for the industry.

“When the shrimp and fish are still swimming in the water, it is not possible to say what is successful, but how is the whole chain going to the processing plant and then transporting to the export port?”. The sentiments of Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan at the online conference on solutions to develop the pangasius chain after social distancing with provinces in the Mekong Delta, September 25 afternoon/ 2021.

AREA OF FEEDING Pangasius halved

Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the General Department of Fisheries, said that due to the implementation of social distancing, by mid-September 2021, 176 businesses out of 449 pangasius enterprises in the Mekong Delta had to stopped production due to failure to meet the cost burden and 3 on-site conditions.

Particularly in 5 key pangasius provinces (An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Hau Giang and Vinh Long) there are 106 pangasius processing factories, of which 52 factories have to temporarily operate (accounting for 49% of the total). ), the number of employees having to leave work due to the epidemic is over 70%.

“That leads to a reduction in the purchase of input materials, mainly using raw materials from the company's farming areas or in the associated chain. In addition to the number of direct workers at seafood processing factories who have lost their jobs, the same number of workers involved in the production chain will also be affected,” said Luan. .

The farming stage also faces many difficulties when the price of aqua feed increases and there is a shortage of workers to harvest. Transporting pangasius seed, food, and products between localities is broken, costs for covid testing, and the risk of material shortage in the last months of the year is high.

Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries

According to Mr. Luan, the farming area of ​​pangasius in the third quarter also decreased by 50-55% compared to the second quarter. The output of pangasius harvested in July decreased by 20%, in August decreased by 44.9% and in the first half of September. down 77% compared to the corresponding months and fortnights of 2020.

Ms. To Thi Tuong Lan, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that from mid-July 2021 up to now, many businesses have not yet made plans. reopen production.

Pangasius export turnover in August 2021 has decreased by 28.5% over the same period last year. Pangasius export turnover in September may decrease by over 30% compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, before the very slow recovery of pangasius businesses, many businesses will lose their year-end orders and do not dare to accept new orders for early 2022.

According to Ms. Lan, the worrying problem is that the quality of raw fish in the pond is currently decreasing when the fish are oversized, yellow fish... along with people's reduction in stocking will lead to a shortage of raw materials at the end of the day. this year and early next year.

Therefore, Ms. To Tuong Lan suggested that the Ministry of Health should have a set of guidelines for disease prevention and control for seafood processing enterprises to serve as a "guideline" in restoring production.

This set of rules should have uniform regulations on testing, accepting workers back into the business, responding to incidents when there is an F0 case or a worker has been vaccinated with the 1st or 2nd dose of the vaccine.. .

"Due to the lack of a unified set of rules, each locality in the Mekong Delta fights the epidemic differently, lack of synchronous coordination has caused a lot of difficulties for businesses in transporting raw materials, harvesting and transportation. Pangasius seed, pangasius raw material", Ms. Lan reflected.

NEED TO SAVE THE FISH INDUSTRY

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son said that currently 19 southern provinces are implementing Covid-19 prevention and control at different levels, from which there is a certain degree of warping. The Ministry of Health will participate in solving problems of localities and businesses, and at the same time determine: We cannot "Zero Covid-19".

The Ministry of Health proposed that the criteria for delimiting the "red zone" should not be applied to provinces, districts and communes, but down to residential units, smaller administrative units to expand the "green zones", narrow "red zone" and easy to control the epidemic.

Therefore, the Ministry of Health is developing new guidelines to ensure production in the "new normal" with a safe, flexible, adaptive version that effectively controls the epidemic. 

Mr. Duong Nghia Quoc, Chairman of the Vietnam Pangasius Association reflected that although the State Bank had many circulars requesting interest rate reductions to support businesses, in fact many businesses had not been able to reduce interest rates, some only interest rate reduction of 0.5 - 1%. The State Bank should inspect, supervise and consider reducing interest rates to 2% to help businesses overcome the current period.

Mr. Quoc also asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to propose the Government to reduce electricity bills for businesses, raising the rate of electricity bill reduction to 20-30% instead of the current 10% reduction.

Proposing the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to have solutions to stabilize the rising feed prices, propose the Government to support businesses in implementing distribution channels for the domestic market as well as for export, because pangasius is currently there is still quite a lot left.

This is the occasion for 13 provinces in the Mekong Delta to experiment with regional linkages according to Resolution 120, expanding the development of regional economic space. For the pangasius industry chain, it is necessary to link into an economic entity.

Mr. Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development

Sharing difficulties with businesses in the pangasius industry, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan affirmed that everyone is being affected by the Covid-19 epidemic. It is worth mentioning that no scientist can confirm when this epidemic will end.

“I consider it as an economic space from one locality to another, from factories to workers, from one pond to another, it's like a flow, a blood vessel in the human body, so only If a blood vessel is broken, it will break and die. Economic space, the chain of goods is not only of any province, but it is brought from factory workers and farmers of provinces to Ho Chi Minh City to ports, to foreign markets ... ", Minister Hoan emphasize.

“When the shrimp and fish are still squirming in the water, it is not possible to say what is successful, but also how the whole chain goes to the processing plant and then transported to the export port. How many stages to export a fillet to foreign countries, how many production stages we need to understand. We need to revive the pangasius, rebuild the development strategy for the long-term pangasius, "Minister Hoan affirmed.