A golden time for seafood to accelerate

According to the assessment of Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien, 2020 is a year when the agricultural sector faces many difficulties. In addition to the Covid-19 outbreak, Vietnam is also affected by storms on storms, floods on floods in the Central region, saline intrusion, climate change, hail, and thunderstorms causing severe damage to the seafood industry. However, Vietnamese agriculture still achieved the set targets.

The Covid-19 pandemic outbreak has caused extremely serious impacts, negatively impacting the global economy. In that context, many countries around the world have carried out Covid-19 vaccination and brought about good results. Many countries have recovered and have very fast economic growth rates.

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien analyzed: “During the Covid-19 outbreak, many production supply chains were broken, and countries competing with Vietnam for seafood are also facing many difficulties. Vietnam's good prevention of Covid-19 is an opportunity for us to prepare to organize production and be ready to export seafood to large markets as we have done for many years.”

“The time when the world's food production chains were broken was also the time when Vietnam gradually controlled the Covid-19 epidemic. That was a favorable condition for the seafood industry to accelerate, an opportunity for us to correctly assess the situation and quickly implement to bring about good results,” the Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development emphasized.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic affected seafood trade with all markets. However, some markets still increased seafood imports from Vietnam, including the US up nearly 10%, the UK up 23%, Canada up 14%, Russia up 32%, and Australia up 10%. The stability of supply and product diversity have met the changing tastes of consumers in countries in the context of Covid-19.

In response to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on fisheries exploitation activities, the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) has regularly monitored the production situation of localities, thereby directing the strengthening of control of fishing vessels at ports, ensuring epidemic prevention but not affecting production and exploitation activities.

In addition to the orientation of processing and export consumption in recent years, in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic making export circulation difficult, seafood has witnessed a sharp increase in demand for processing and domestic consumption of seafood products.

In particular, fresh products play an important role in ensuring the domestic demand for clean food, providing quality nutrition for people. Helping fishermen change their fishing habits, pay attention to preservation and shorten fishing days to have fresh products for on-site service and domestic consumption.

According to the Directorate of Fisheries, in 2020, under the direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, industries and associations in the fisheries sector have organized to promote domestic consumption. From these connections, pangasius products have been well received by the domestic market, especially markets in the North.

In addition, many businesses have built production and domestic market development strategies. This is an important solution to help balance exports and domestic consumption.

In addition, the fisheries industry is also very flexible in traditional export products. Vietnam has directed export processing facilities to have products that directly serve households and can be used immediately in the context of social distancing.

These are the directions and experiences that the seafood industry can adapt to the fluctuations in the new situation for the domestic and international markets, thereby promoting advantages and taking advantage of the domestic market.

According to nongnghiep.vn