Fishery industry strives to boost post COVID-19 production

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 epidemic globally has seriously affected many of the country’s largest consumers of its seafood products such as the United States, China, Italy, Spain, and France. In addition, social distancing rules as well as challenges in transporting goods has caused widespread disruption in supply chains, in addition to major price fluctuations in most types of aquatic products.

According to Tran Dinh Luan, Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the first quarter of the year saw the fisheries sector deal with the COVID-19 epidemic along with drought and salinity intrusion taking place in the Mekong Delta, an area where aquatic product production and exports account for the majority of trade. Since December 2019, the Directorate of Fisheries has been advising localities on crop arrangements and solutions aimed at coping with the impact of droughts and saltwater intrusion.

With regard to the impact of the epidemic on commodities such as lobster, snails, and garrupa, the Directorate of Fisheries now requires localities to provide technical guidance for farmers in an effort to help them adopt science and technology as a means of reducing costs. This can be done whilst also maintaining product quality as a means of serving both the domestic and foreign markets when the COVID-19 is at last brought under control.

“We will continue to provide market information to localities to help them organise production according to the ministry's plans. Once social distancing rules come to an end, the ministry will hold conferences with localities to examine ways to boost shrimp and tra fish exports while working out the best production plans for farmers to restore production and take full advantage of both the domestic and export markets,” Tuan said.

The Directorate of Fisheries noted that the local fishery sector still has plenty of market opportunities in the face of the current complicated situation. Most notably, the pangasius industry can take advantage of the sharp increase in the price of other types of white meat fish so that processing plants of the EU may consider making use of tra fish. With the import tax of pangasius from the country to the EU dropping from 5% to 0% as a result of to the Europe-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) this represents an advantage for local fish exporters.