Vietnam’s Nha Trang Seafood has opened a new shrimp processing factory in the Mekong Delta, joining other producers that are expanding processing capacity.
The new plant is located in Bac Lieu Province, and cost VND 400 billion (USD 17.2 million, EUR 16.3 million) to build. It has a capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons (MT) of processed shrimp per year, or roughly 60 MT per day, becoming one of the 10 largest shrimp processing plants in Vietnam according to Fimex (Sao Ta) Chairman Ho Quoc Luc – who is also a former chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
The location of the new factory will enable it to take advantage of the country’s largest shrimp farming area in the Mekong Delta, and make full use of the existing and future transport systems for exports.
Vietnam is targeting a shrimp export value of USD 8 billion (EUR 7.6 billion) by 2030, with a growth rate of 8 percent per year. The farming sector is seeing significant investment, with support from favorable government policies. As a result the construction of new processing plants, including the recently opened Nha Trang Seafood plant, is being accelerated to keep up with the increased farming sector to help realize the export value target, Luc said.
In early 2021, Thuan Phuoc Seafoods & Trading, which is based in the central city of Da Nang, commissioned its An An factory in the Mekong Delta Province of Tien Giang. The plant also cost roughly VND 400 billion (USD 17.2 million, EUR 16.3 million), and has a capacity of 50 MT per day. A cold-storage facility with a 3,000-MT-per-year capacity was also built along with the factory. Material for the plant will be supplied from Thuan Phuoc’s farms in the nearby province of Ben Tre.
For his own company, Luc said that Fimex plans to commission its new shrimp processing plants in the fourth quarter of this year – slightly later than the timeline it gave earlier this year. The combined capacity of the two factories, which are being constructed in Soc Trang Province, are 25,000 MT per year, with one having 15,000 MT in annual capacity and the other with 10,000 MT annual capacity.
Minh Phu Seafood has also announced plans to strengthen its position as Vietnam’s leading shrimp export company by constructing a number of new processing plants in the region.
