Seafood enterprises fear to face hardship

The shrimp export market is still good and a bumper harvest is promising for breeders but seafood processing factories are facing many difficulties ahead.

Workers processing shrimp for export in the Mekong Delta. Photo: LHV

The shrimp sector in Mekong Delta has been optimistic about its developments since the beginning of the year. However, the 4th wave of Covid-19 pandemic spreading throughout the region is causing difficulties in production, sales, and procession of shrimp for export.

At this time, some localities have started their shrimp farming season early and many households have harvested at the right time when the selling price is quite good and profitable. But joy comes together with anxiety since the pandemic is still lingering with complicated developments.

There have been obstacles in transporting facilities to the shrimp farming areas including those related to breeds and aquafeeds, that have disrupted the shrimp breeding schedule. In recent days, harvested shrimp sold to processing factories have begun to be consumed slowly with the price leveled off, even decreased by several thousand dóng per kilo.

The fact that shrimp prices have remained stable at present luckily thanks to the Soc Trang Province’s concentration in many large-scale seafood processing factories and good market demands. However, a seafood export company’s director in Soc Trang was worried that the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has not been controlled, so seafood processing factories cannot recruit more workers.

Meanwhile, to ensure production safety in compliance with the requirement of "3 actions at one spot" (production - eating – resting) at the factory, only one-third of the employees are now still working so they only maintain one-third of productivity compared to days before. But the good news is that currently, no stagnancy is reported yet in factories or the farming households during their harvests despite the selling price is decreasing.

Mr Vo Van Phuc, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of Clean Seafood Joint Stock Company Vietnam (Soc Trang), said after more than a week of fighting the pandemic, the situation is still very tense despite a forecast has been released and a plan has been set up long ago to cope with it. The factory has more than 3,000 workers, but to implement the 3TC regulation, only 30-35% of the employees are still working.

The most worry is that seafood processing factories in the provinces of Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, and Ca Mau are narrowing their production activities, which will affect the whole agricultural production and farmers’ raw shrimp harvest.

In terms of production, a reduction of labor has greatly impacted the production to keep up with the contract delivery time, banking transactions, export schedules,  and sea transportation, etc. Currently, the biggest obstacle is about an increase in sea freight rates by 5-7 times, with some maritime routes reaching by 10 times.

Based on the favorable situation in the first months of the year, if seafood processing and export enterprises can reach an optimistic growth rate of 20-30% and August may be negative by 50%, the whole year target is likely to be affected.

According to Mr. Phuc, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, to implement the dual goal of "fighting the epidemic and ensuring production", there were some suggestions that the Government should give priority support to the agriculture, and fisheries sectors. This is an important production field, creating a production chain for society, maintaining economic and social activities, and national security.

“In particular, the urgent solution is focussing on a priority plan of vaccination for the labor force, truck drivers ... Hopefully, the vaccination campaign will quickly repel the pandemic so that production activities in factories can return to normal."

Recently, Vietnam Clean Seafood Joint Stock Company (Soc Trang) responded to the campaign, contributing nearly VND4 billion to the Covid-19 prevention fund. In the first phase, 2,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine were distributed to employees. In the second phase, the company continues to receive more 1,170 doses.