Illustrative image (Source VNA)HCM City (VNA) - Vietnamesefirms export seafood even to tough markets such as the European Union (EU), theUnited States (US) and Japan but are unable to sell their products at home.
Shark catfish for instance is exported to around140 countries, including the US and the EU, and shipments this year areexpected to be worth over 2 billion USD, but is not popular in Vietnam.
Speaking at a panel discussion on developing thedomestic market for shark catfish last month Dr Ly Thi Thanh Loan, member ofthe executive committee of the Vietnam Pangasius Association, said distributionand market segmentation have not been done well.
Nguyen Van Dao, General Director of the Go DangSeafood Company, said shark catfish companies mostly focus on export ratherthan selling to Vietnamese consumers.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters andProducers (VASEP) has been pushing to ease restrictions on traces of prohibitedchemicals and antibiotics in seafood before Tet (Lunar NewYear) holidays, which comes around early next year.
This year some supermarkets have been refusingto accept seafood containing cloramphenicol, an antibiotic that is prohibitedin seafood, though its content was under 0.3 ppb (parts per billion), lowenough for acceptance in the EU.
The companies selling the seafood saidVietnamese regulation are too stringent, claiming traces of the chemical wouldnot harm consumers.
The Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment said this is a relatively new problem which requires authorities toinvestigate further.
Its Agro Processing and Market DevelopmentAuthority also said some seafood firms are struggling to sell domestically dueto cumbersome procedures.
Last year, 31 kilogrammes of seafood were consumedper person in Vietnam, which could grow to 33-35kg by 2020, Nguyen Quoc Toan,deputy head of the authority, added.-VNA
VNA
