On March 31st, in Vung Tau City, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People’s Committee of Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), and Tuoi Tre newspaper jointly organized a seminar on the topic of “Developing supply chain linkages and elevating the Vietnamese seafood brand.

The conference was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Europe-America (Ministry of Industry and Trade), the Directorate of Fisheries, VASEP, the People’s Committee of Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Fisheries Sub-Department of various provinces and cities involved in seafood farming and processing enterprises from across the country.

Speaking at the seminar, Tuoi Tre newspaper Editor-in-Chief Le The Chu said that this was a part of the activities under the forum “Developing the seafood industry: sustainable exploitation – promoting farming” initiated by Tuoi Tre newspaper, in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities since 2022.

At the seminar, delegates were presented with presentations by speakers and business leaders on typical topics, models, and solutions that are elevating the Vietnamese seafood brand, including supply chain linkages that bring success to the seafood industry; closed value chains that elevate the Vietnamese shrimp brand; current situation and sustainable development solutions for crab fishing in Ca Mau; and the model of combining aquaculture and tourism in Ba Ria – Vung Tau province.

In addition, the seminar also heard reports from the Director of the Asia-Pacific region – Norwegian Seafood Council, Mr. Asbjrn Warvik Rortveit, on the development of aquaculture value chains and the success story of Norwegian salmon.

VASEP Secretary-General Truong Dinh Hoe said that businesses need to grasp consumer trends to enhance the value of seafood products, including those that promote health, are environmentally friendly, and encourage circular economy products.

Based on this, an evaluation of the advantages of the Vietnamese seafood industry was made to balance demand and proactively link production chains to create suitable products, process diverse product chains for many markets, and link to the ecological chain to facilitate quality product control and market development.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, seafood is an important commodity that accounts for a large proportion of Vietnam’s exports. However, in the first three months of 2023, seafood exports only reached $1.79 billion, a 29% decrease compared to the same period last year. The two main export items were pangasius fish, which reached $422 million and decreased by over 33%, and shrimp, which reached $578 million and decreased by over 39% compared to the same period last year.

In 2022, Vietnam achieved a record seafood export milestone of $11 billion, but shortly after, domestic businesses entered a difficult phase due to the impact of the global market as well as some internal difficulties.

The “Developing supply chain linkages and elevating the Vietnamese seafood brand” seminar is the third in a series of activities under the theme “Developing the seafood industry: sustainable exploitation – promoting farming,” initiated and implemented by Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Prior to this, a seminar titled “Resolving difficulties to make Vietnamese seafood rise to the top of the world” was held in Soc Trang province in October 2022 and in February of this year, there was a seminar on “Sea aquaculture – transitioning from tradition to modernity” in Binh Dinh.

Source: Tin tuc News