Mekong River Commission

Seafood industry tangled in nets of global turmoil
Thanh Nien News, December 8, 2008

The global economic crunch has bitten deep into the local seafood industry. Many processors and exporters have lowered production and cut jobs while many farmers have quit breeding fish. Doan Toi, general director of Nam Viet Corporation in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, says the company has slashed 5,000 jobs, or nearly half of its workforce, over the past several months. Nam Viet, the country's largest exporter of pangasius (tra and basa catfish), has earned more than US$200 million in export turnover this year. Tran Thien Hai, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, says with demand low in Viet Nam's major shrimp export markets such as US and Japan, many companies have had to cut production and are trying to penetrate into other markets like Russia, the Republic of Korea and Australia. Duong Ngoc Minh, general director of the seafood processing firm Hung Vuong Corporation in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, says due to the global financial crisis, many catfish importers have failed to obtain a bank guarantee, hurting their business operations badly. Minh also says that demand from EU importers and consumers has dropped with the euro falling against the US dollar. He expects the catfish processing and exporting sector's labour force to reduce by 20-30 percent in early 2009. While tra and basa exports are expected to generate $1.4 billion in turnover this year, Minh says it would be difficult to reach even $1 billion next year if the government does not help the industry out. Minh says many fish farmers have abandoned their vocation over the past four months after suffering big losses, and as a result, supply of the fish would drop sharply next year. Tra and basa fish are currently priced at VND12,000-VND14,000 ($0.70-0.80) per kilogram while input costs are around VND16,500 ($1) per kilogram. "The country's seafood industry will continue to face difficulties, driven by the global financial crisis, until the end of 2010," the Thoi bao Kinh te Saigon Online (Saigon Economic Times) quoted Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong as saying at a recent seminar. The seminar covered the development of Viet Nam's seafood industry after the country joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) nearly two years ago. The Deputy Minister says that though the seafood industry has achieved a great deal of success and gained a lot of experience after the WTO integration, it remains a vulnerable industry. He said the ministry had asked the government to grant import licenses for unprocessed seafood products to local businesses which would process it for exports, as a measure to boost export growth. Viet Nam is also encouraging international investors to upgrade post-processing technology, he added. Viet Nam, the world's eighth largest seafood exporter, earned $4.27 billion from exports in the first 11 months of this year.

Southern province suffers major loss in shrimp aquaculture
Thanh Nien News, 2 December 2008

Bac Lieu Province in the Mekong Delta has lost up to 197 hectares of shrimp farms in late November, the deputy head of provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department Ta Minh Phu said Monday. The new figure adds up to 21,550 hectares of aquaculture shrimp destroyed since the beginning of the year, with the most affected localities being Bac Lieu Town and Hoa Binh, Dong Hai and Gia Rai districts.The cost of raising shrimp has increased by 20-40 percent due to surging input prices, while the market price of the crustacean has dropped by nearly a third compared to the same period last year. It is estimated that a shrimp farmer will lose VND10-40 million (US$590-2,362) per hectare on average. 

Seafood sales slide on global market turmoil
ThanhNien News/Bloomberg, 14 November, 2008

Seafood sales to Viet Nam's largest overseas markets have slumped as the global credit crunch forces employers to cut payrolls. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that the US, Japan and European economies will all contract next year in their first simultaneous recession since World War II. Importers are having credit problems, so many have cut orders. At the same time, local fisheries processors are facing higher production costs and a cash shortage because of higher interest rates. Seafood is Viet Nam's thirdlargest export by value after petroleum products and textiles, according to the Hanoi-based General Statistics Office. The country has exported US$3.8 billion worth up to the end of October. Viet Nam exports catfish to nearly 80 countries and territories. However, the biggest markets are Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the EU. And this year things are looking ominous, orders from Russia and Ukraine have slowed considerably. Russia last year imported US$155.6 million worth of catfish and Ukraine imported US$104.7 million. The rising value of the US dollar is also creating difficulties as catfish becomes more expensive in Europe. The Ministry of Agriculture predicts the last three months of this year will be most important, as the target of $1.5 billion in catfish export turnover seems unreachable in the current economic climate. In addition, heavy rains and floods at the end of last month and early this month destroyed more than 27,000 hectares of fish farms in the northern and central regions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Viet Nam plans to develop tra catfish industry in Mekong Delta
Vietnam News Agency, 11 November, 2008

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has passed a plan on development of production and sales of tra catfish in the Mekong Delta until 2010, with further orientations towards 2020.The breeding of tra fish will be developed in favorable water areas such as the Tien and Hau rivers. Water and land areas will be also zoned off for the production of fries and for fish processing factories in Can Tho city and An Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Tien Giang, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces. The plan aims at increasing the tra catfish farming acreage in the Mekong Delta to 8,600 hectares by 2010, and 13,000 ha by 2020 for an annual output of 1.25 million tonnes and 1.85 million tonnes, respectively. The region's exports of tra catfish are estimated to increase by an average of 5.9 percent per year, fetching about $ 1.5 billion by 2010 and $ 2.3 billion by 2020.This increase in fish production and processing will also generate more jobs for local workers, with the number of workers involved in this sector estimated to increase from 200,000 in 2010 to 250,000 in 2020.

Inflation puts strain on nation's fishermen
Phnom Penh Post, 8 October 2008

Rising food and fuel prices are eating away at the profit margins of Cambodia's fishermen, prompting fishing communities to address the issue. More than 200 fishing communities along the Mekong River, the Tonle Sap and coastal areas were represented at a two-day workshop, organised by the nongovernmental organisation Fisheries Action Coalition Team (FACT). Participants said catches had declined to about 5kg or less per day, which was not enough to support a family, and the price of goods had risen sharply but the prices fishermen are getting for their hauls were not increasing commensurately. High petrol prices were making it harder for fishermen to earn a living. Ly Vuthy, chief of the community fishery development office at the Fishery Administration, acknowledged the concerns of the nation's fishing communities. "It is a problem to be addressed," he said, adding the government is looking into the case and will act soon.

Two catfish exporters register for lifting of US anti-dumping tariffs
VietNamNet Bridge, 7 October 2008

The Saigon-Mekong Fish Company (SAMEFICO) and Cadovimex II have asked the US Department of Commerce to reconsider the anti-dumping policy imposed on their products. In their submissions to the US's top watchdog, the two enterprises clearly explained that their frozen Tra trademark catfish fillets were not exported to the US market during the period under inspection, namely from August 1, 2007 to July 31, 2008.The documents also proved that the two enterprises have never entered into a joint-venture with any other partners to export their products to the US during the afore-mentioned period. The two exporters have submitted documentary proof, establishing both the timeframe and the volume of the first shipments of frozen catfish fillets to enter the US market, as well as the dates their products were checked in or out of storehouses before reaching customers. The DOC said they will make their preliminary results public 180 days from the start of inspections. The final decision will be announced 90 days after the publication of the preliminary results.

Fisheries gets bio-tech boost
Viet Nam News, 4 October 2008

The Vietnamese Government has approved a US$51.6 million bio-technology plan aimed at getting the fisheries sector up to ASEAN standards according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and foreign enterprises were being encouraged to join the move. The ministry would co-ordinate with relevant sectors to build a legal corridor and study international laws to protect domestic bio-tech products. With more than 40 projects, the bio-tech plan is expected to meet 30 per cent of demand for disease-resistant fisheries breeds including prawn, tra catfish, green-clawed prawn, African carp, crab and red snappers by 2010; 70 per cent by 2015; and 100 per cent by 2020. Research institutes are being urged to send talented scientists on 6-12 month study-trips to countries with well-developed fisheries bio-technology. The fisheries sector has already completed studies in areas including technology on developing breeds, preserving species, boosting quality and managing the environment, the problem was that the application of bio-technologies had been carried out at laboratories which lacked modern equipment. Fishermen often bred stocks using traditional techniques, but this often led to weak resistance against disease. Each seafood research institute had one laboratory which carried out many different projects at the same time but these were hindered by a lack of staff. In the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta, there are about 1.1 million ha dedicated to aqua-products, accounting for 55 per cent of the country's breeding area. Nearly all of these aqua-products are exported. Local farmers face a number of problems, such as good crops but cheap prices, good prices but poor crops, lack of successful breeds and outbreaks of disease. Provinces in Tay Nguyen (Central Highland) had potential to breed aqua-products, but the current amount of breeds met only about 40 per cent of demand, the remainder were bought from northern provinces and the Cuu Long region. 

Cambodia, "environmentally sustainable" tourism to save Mekong dolphin
Phnom Penh (AsiaNews/Agencies)

Saving the few dozen freshwater dolphins still remaining in the Mekong River, and helping the local population by guaranteeing them a source of livelihood is the aim of the "ecotourism" project begun in the border area between Lao PDR and Cambodia by the Cambodia Rural Development Team (CRDT), which has the twofold objective of protecting wildlife and providing an alternative source of income for the inhabitants of the villages. The village of Sambor, in the north of Cambodia, is one of the places selected by the CRDT as a model of environmentally sustainable development. Tourists are given the opportunity to live in contact with the local population, to help the inhabitants protect the natural habitat of the dolphins, and to teach a little English to the children. The most frequently requested activities include well digging, sewer construction, and work in the fields. The experiment promoted by the activists is intended to save the dolphins from extinction by radically changing the habits of the inhabitants of the village, who for decades have used aggressive fishing methods like explosives and high-capacity nets. Now the freshwater dolphins are seen as a resource to be "exploited" in order to attract foreign capital and tourism; the visitors pay US$60 for three days in contact with nature, and the money is used to support the local population. But recent studies have demonstrated that if the benefit for individuals is beyond question, the same cannot be said for the dolphins: in spite of a small increase in their numbers in the initial phase of the project, it is not yet clear whether this is truly effective for preserving the species. Scientists affirm that a new and not yet identified disease is spreading rapidly, killing the offspring. Researchers fear that the new virus - caused by pollution in the water, infested with chemical agents and the runoff from gold mining projects - could soon lead to the total extinction of the dolphins.