Friday, May 30, 2008 Vietnam overtakes RP in shrimp exports
HIT hard by the anti-dumping law of the United States of America (USA) in 2004 and also by extreme drought in 2005, the once war-torn Vietnam has overtaken the Philippines as it exports more than 50 percent of its shrimps to USA.
Data culled from the lecture of Thai scientist Dr. Pinij Kungvankij, who was one of the foreign resource speakers invited to the 6th Philippine Shrimp Congress (PSC) 2008, which opened last May 28 in Bacolod City, showed Vietnam in the fifth place on shrimp exports to the US, third on exports to South Korea and second on shrimp exports to Japan.
The PSC was also attended by Senator Edgardo Angara, Department of Agriculture (DA) Emmanuel Parras and Bureau of Fishery and Aquatic Resources (Bfar) Assistant Director Benjamin Tabios.
Kungvankij said Vietnam's shrimp industry, mostly grown and cultured in the Mekong river, caters to some two million Vietnamese dependents and is the country's fifth foreign exchange.
Thailand, on the other hand, is Asia's foremost leader as it ranked first in the US, Japan and South Korea import scenes while the Philippines slipped to 10th in Japan and South Korea.
This prompted PSC keynote speaker Angara to exemplify Vietnam in challenging Filipino shrimp growers during the opening night ceremonies, stressing the "trade secrets," which he identified as heavy investments in research and development, a well-focused government bureaucracy and a very influential private sector advocacy.
"Same pattern of governance can be observed in other major players in the shrimp world market - Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and especially Taiwan," Angara added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Jan Koesling of the Bayer Animal Health, Vietnam, explained the "phenomenal rise" of Vietnam as a major player in the world market.
Koesling said the Vietnamese government created a Ministry of Fishery separate from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. "This brings single focus on aquaculture alone, among them the shrimps."
Other than this, Koesling said Vietnam has an effective quality assurance control in importation done by its National Fishery Quality Assurance and Veterinary Directorate (NAFIQAVED), which sees to it that imported brood stocks are totally free from luminous bacteria, white spot viruses and other diseases.
In the case of the Philippines, PCS 2008 president Roberto Gatuslao said "our laxity in quality control devastated the shrimp industry back in 1997 and took us until now to slowly recover."
As to research and development, Koesling counted five Vietnam government-funded major universities and three aquaculture research institutes for the shrimp industry alone, not to mention 10 third party funded researches, among them the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center for Aquaculture (SEAFDEC) based in Miagao.
Established in 1998, Koesling recorded 80 percent of all seafood exporters who organized themselves into the Vietnamese Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), which is composed of non-government organizations, the chambers of commerce and other intergovernmental organization, which Angara earlier said, posed a very strong advocacy (while the PSC is only on its 6th year).
Meanwhile, Tabios said that "while we may have structural setbacks, the world still looks at us as a non-user of antibiotics but rather a pro-biotics user."
"Traditional shrimp markets still look up to this strength of ours as something good for their health. Also, the Philippines is still a producer of the Black Tiger shrimp specie which still has a huge market abroad, despite the popularity of the white shrimp," Tabios added. "In this Congress, let us come together, both private and public sectors and draw roadmaps to create a niche in the world market." (Gil Alfredo Severino)
