Soc Trang, Vietnam-based shrimp exporter Fimex (Sao Ta) raised its production and sales value in January, the company said in an update on 3 February.
The firm produced 988 metric tons (MT) of processed shrimp last month, 29 percent higher year-on-year. Its export value in January also rose 42 percent year-on-year to USD 14.1 million (EUR 34.4 million).
Fimex said it plans to begin the new farming season after Vietnam’s Lunar New Year holiday, which will take place from 10 to 16 February. Plans to expand production capacity, meanwhile, are already underway.
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, and the company hopes to open it in early 2022.
Fimex operates its own farms on 190 hectares that supply material to its processing plants in the region. It also buys shrimp from local farmers for processing.
The company said it produced 20,000 MT of processed shrimp and earned an export value of USD 192 million (EUR 159.6 million) last year, both surging 20 percent from 2019.
Vietnam exported USD 3.73 billion (EUR 3.1 billion) worth of shrimp in 2020, 11 percent higher year-on-year, as packers in the country successfully boosted sales despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fimex Chairman Ho Quoc Luc said last month that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains in many large shrimp-producing countries such as India, Indonesia, and Ecuador, creating opportunities for exporters from Vietnam to increase sales.
However, Vietnam has been facing new outbreaks of COVID-19. After having no local transmission for several days, nearly 350 new cases were detected across the country between 27 January and 3 February, according to latest data from the Ministry of Health.
Photo courtesy of Fimex
