Soc Trang, Vietnam-based shrimp exporter Fimex (Sao Ta) was able to increase its production and sales value in February despite the Lunar New Year holiday, the firm said in an update on 1 March.
Vietnam’s biggest holiday, the Lunar new year festival, took place from 10 to 16 February, but Fimex said its actual working days in the month were just 19 days.
The company produced 1,185 metric tons (MT) of processed shrimp in the month, rising 32 percent year-on-year. Its export value in February also surged 9.9 percent year-on-year to USD 11.1 million (EUR 9.2 million).
Fimex said it has completed seeding at one third of its farms after the Lunar new year holiday.
Plans to expand production capacity are under way, the company added. On 18 October, the company approved a plan to build a new shrimp processing plant with designed capacity of 15,000 MT per year in Soc Trang Province. Work on the project, which is scheduled to cost between VND 200 billion and VND 250 billion (USD 8.6 million and USD 10.8 million, EUR 7.4 million and EUR 9.3 million), is expected to begin in early 2021. The new plant will mainly serve the company’s European markets.
Fimex said the new factory is hoped to commission in early 2022.
In January, Fimex said it has completed establishing a new company, Khang An Foods, which operates in aquaculture and processing, and farming and processing of agriculture products. Fimex holds a 77.09 percent stake in the new subsidiary, which owns a vegetable processing factory and a 4,000 metric ton per year cold-storage facility in Soc Trang. Fimex also decided to lease its Sao Ta shrimp processing plant in Soc Trang to Khang An.
Fimex, headquartered in Soc Trang, operates its own farms on 190 hectares that supply material to its processing plants in the region, and also buys shrimp from local farmers for processing.
Photo courtesy of Fimex
