Promoting sustainable pangasius market in Europe
In order to provide opportunities for the farmers, production and processing enterprises to learn about foreign fish market, the SUPA project ” Establishing a Sustainable Pangasius Supply Chain in Viet Nam” continues to support business delegation to participate in activities at the global seafood fair from May the 21st – 23 rd, 2015 in Brussels (Belgium).
The delegation includes representatives from organizations involving in the project: Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre (VNCPC), Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), World Wildlife Fund in Vietnam (WWF- VN) and World Wildlife Fund in Austria (WWF- AT). In addition, there are representatives from 6 farming and processing enterprises and 1 representative from the farming cooperative in An Giang province.
The project partners are having discussion with pangasius importers in Europe
In 2014, the project also created favorable conditions for the business delegation to participate in the Fair, which helps them have a lot of new customers from Europe and some other countries. When participating in the event, the representatives from enterprises had chance to visit some supermarkets in Belgium to learn about the market and compare Vietnamese catfish products with other products under the guidance of foreign experts. Especially, one company has signed contract directly with a supermarket. This is the first time that a Vietnamese pangasius company has direct sale with a supermarkets without intermediate importers.
In this Fair, the enterprises have chance to see by their own eyes the fishery products of other countries in the world, the farming model with high quality together with all kinds of advanced machines and support equipment. Besides, the experience sharing and market connectivity also brought an added value for them. The SUPA project rented a fair booth to help promote information and it’s a destination for the dealers, importers and businesses enterprises to meet each other and exchange their experiences. In this booth, there are catalogues bag, brochures, and flyers for delivery, together with business certifications accompanied by CD disc about pangasius production and processing toward sustainable development, environmental friendliness.
Pangasius processing company is negotiating with the client
Attending the Fair, SUPA project, together with other partners like Center for the Promotion of Imports from the developing countries – CBI (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands), VASEP and Directorate of Fisheries (MARD) held a Forum with title “International Business Forum to promote sustainable export for Vietnamese catfish”. Because it was taking place during the Fair time, the Forums drew great attention from international organizations such as WWF, the seafood certification agencies, importers and retailers from the Netherlands, Britain, France, Vietnamese catfish production and processing companies, the press agencies of Vietnam in Europe such as Vietnam Television, Vietnam News Agency. At this forum, Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Deputy Director (General Directorate of Fisheries) has introduced the status quo of pangasius production and processing industry, the basic issues that need to be improved towards sustainable development, especially it’s the introduction of Decree No.36 for controlling and making transparency of information and improving the quality of Vietnamese catfish. Hereby, the importers, the retailers have better understanding about the commitment of Vietnamese Government for a sustainable catfish production in specific and seafood production in general.
Admin VNCPC
