Toan Dao

Contributing Editor reporting from Hanoi, Vietnam

Toan Dao has written about Vietnam’s business community, with a focus on energy and agriculture, for a number of Vietnamese and international outlets for more than 10 years. As a contributing editor for SeafoodSource in Southeast Asia, he also covers other major seafood producers in the region including Indonesia and Thailand.


Author Archive

Published on
July 12, 2023

Indonesia is among the top global producers in the aquaculture sector, undergoing 527 percent growth from 1990 to 2018. However, its production has declined from a high of 16.1 million MT in 2017 to 14.6 million MT in 2021, according to FAO statistics.

Indonesia earned approximately USD 6.2 billion (EUR 5.67 billion) from its exports of fishery and marine products in 2022, with shrimp accounting for USD 2.2 billion (EUR 2 billion) in exports in

Read More
Published on
June 26, 2023

Viet Uc Seafood, Vietnam’s leading shrimp postlarvae supplier, has opened a shrimp-processing plant in southern Vietnam, completing the firm’s goal of becoming fully integrated along the shrimp value chain.

The Viet Uc-Bac Lieu shrimp processing plant, located in the Hi-Tech Agricultural Park in the coastal province of Bac Lieu, is the first in the country to have automation applied to more than 70 percent of its operations,

Read More
Published on
June 2, 2023

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has decided to maintain antidumping duties on shrimp from India, China, Thailand, and Vietnam in its latest five-year review, according to a 1 June notification.

All five USITC commissioners voted to support the continuation of the antidumping orders.

“The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) today determined that revoking the existing antidumping duty orders on frozen warmwater shrimp

Read More
Published on
May 11, 2023

Authorities in Thailand and South Korea have taken action against a Korean fishing vessel suspected of engaging in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

On 9 March, police in Bangkok, Thailand prevented South Korea-flagged Sun Flower 7 from unloading more than 4,000 metric tons (MT) of tuna worth an estimated THB 250 million (USD 7.4 million, EUR 6.8 million).

On 10 May, South Korea’s Ministry of Fisheries subsequently fined

Read More
Published on
May 4, 2023

Thai Union saw a decline in its total profits in the first quarter of 2023, despite a surprise boost from Red Lobster.

Profits fell mainly due to the lower sales combined with high tuna and salmon prices resulting in softer demand, according to Thai Union’s quarterly report, released 3 May.

Red Lobster, which Thai Union acquired in 2020, contributed a profit of THB 20 million (USD 590,700, EUR 535,120) to Thai Union’s bottom linein

Read More
Published on
April 18, 2023

Vietnam’s seafood trade association is complaining its members are facing unfair trade barriers in its exports of shrimp to South Korea.

In a letter sent to Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade in mid-March, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said despite the Vietnam-South Korea free-trade agreement (FTA), which entered into force in December 2015, South Korea has maintained a quota and tariff

Read More
Published on
April 13, 2023

Vietnam has transformed itself into a middle-income country, with its gross domestic product  growing 8.02 percent in 2022, the fastest annual pace since 1997.

According to a 2021 report from McKinsey Global Institute, 75 percent of Vietnam’s population of approximately 100 million people will spend at least USD 11.00 (EUR 10.20) a day by 2030, up from 40 percent in 2021 and less than 10 percent in 2000. Achieving that spending

Read More
Published on
April 6, 2023

Dealing with an inflation-ravaged global economy, Vietnamese seafood exporters have not received what they expected to be a major boost from the reopening of China thus far in 2023.

After achieving an all-time record value of USD 11 billion (EUR 10.2 billion) in 2022, Vietnam’s seafood exports have stalled thus far in 2023. In February, Vietnam shipped seafood worth USD 610 million (EUR 565.8 million), up 33.4 percent from January. The

Read More
Published on
March 29, 2023

Hyderabad, India-headquartered Avanti Feeds, one of India’s top shrimp-feed producers, has acquired 100 percent of Srivathsa Power Projects, which operates a 17.2-megawatt natural gas-based power plant in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Avanti Feeds, which already owned 49.9 percent of Srivathsa Power Projects, purchased the remaining 50.1 percent, or 16.7 million shares of the firm on 28 March, at a price of INR 2.30 (USD 0.02, EUR 0.03) per

Read More
Published on
March 28, 2023

The government of India, the world’s third-largest fish producer, second-largest aquaculture producer, and fourth-largest seafood exporter, has plans to become an even bigger seafood player.

India's seafood exports have been on an upward trajectory, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.2 percent between 2016 and 2021. Its export value more than doubled to USD 6.68 billion (EUR 6.3 billion) in fiscal year 2020-2021, from USD 2.9

Read More