Enterprises plan to prepare for production recovery

	Seafood industry proposes policies to support the entire production chain
	Production is tough to recover, seafood exports are being interrupted
	Digital transformation to help improve business and production efficiency

Sao Ta Joint Stock Company increases raw processing amid the pandemic. Photo: provided by the company

Many great strategies

Enterprises collect and process industry information; change shrimp farming towards large-scale farming and consider scattered farming as a strategy; processing facilities will soon increase processing capacity associated with automation; and increasing cold storage capacity are upcoming strategies for the shrimp industry to better cope with unexpected difficulties, in the immediate future and amid the prolonged Covid-19 situation.

Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, former Chairman of VASEP, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that in 2021, Covid-19 has caused a lot of damage. The shrimp industry must have a decision to deal risks in the near future.

Market information is the top factor that every entrepreneur must have. The most up-to-date information provides the ability to synthesize the judgment, determination and implementation of each entrepreneur.

In addition, each link in the supply chain and production must also change accordingly. In which, the processing link has many things to do. During the fourth industrial revolution, shrimp businesses are worried about finding ways to mechanize and automate possible steps to increase labor productivity, reduce costs, and increase competitiveness.

“The problem is choosing which technology is affordable and also that technology is developing strongly, because the wrong choice to equip may mean it is outdated. Now, difficulties have come to see that equipping the above equipment is necessary, it is urgent to not be passive due to a lack of labor," Mr. Ho Quoc Luc said.

As an economic industry that has a great potential for development, shrimp businesses also think about new equipment, especially freezing equipment, so they should have a backup capacity, at least a third of the production capacity.

This makes sense, when a certain situation causes the material to stagnate, it is possible to freeze the reserve to prevent spoilage or a situation where customers have a sudden purchase due to the demand for a major event taking place like the Olympics, so they can respond immediately.

Good model

Since August 2021, the situation is very difficult, export turnover decreased more sharply than in July because of very strict pandemic prevention and control measures. From this fact, it is difficult for businesses to complete the goals set out at the beginning of the year.

Setting the target of implementing 70% of this year's plan, Minh Phu Group Joint Stock Company has its own way of preparing human resources to maintain production with its "seven green" plan (green factory, green worker, green movement, green family, green supplier, green vaccine, green medical).

In order to successfully implement the "seven green" model, Minh Phu Group Joint Stock Company has provided a full range of N95 standard masks, anti-droplet glasses, 0.9% saline, water, and steam machine and citronella, lemon, ginger oil at the company and factory.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers realizes that this is a good model that needs to be replicated in the seafood business community. Depending on the conditions and circumstances of each enterprise, it can be flexibly applied to each factory.

It is forecast that the source of raw materials from farming will be 20-30% short and the price of raw materials will increase by 10-20% in the last months of 2021.

To overcome the shortage of raw materials in the last months of the year, some businesses have prepared solutions to not interrupt export orders.

For example, Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company promotes raw processing as a strategy in the context of the labor shortage. According to the leader of this business, raw processing, leading to lower current consumption, is a way to prepare for the upcoming shortage of raw materials and limit defective goods when working during the pandemic.

Therefore, if the production of highly processed goods will increase the rate of defective goods, it also increases the risk. The company came to the decision to focus on raw processing, readying raw materials for processing later.

Besides, the raw processing is twice as fast as fine processing. Making raw goods will increase processing output, contributing to keeping farmed shrimp from being damaged.

In order to restore production, businesses believe it is necessary to have the care of the Government and the industry on policies in an appropriate and consistent way. It is also a positive step in the implementation of the Sector Development Strategy, which was signed by the Government in early 2021, towards a strong, stable and sustainable economic sector.