Soc Trang, Vietnam-based shrimp exporter Fimex (Sao Ta) is hoping its sales value will surge 12.5 percent year-on-year to USD 180 million (EUR 154.7 million) this year, company’s chairman Ho Quoc Luc told SeafoodSource Monday, 28 September.
The target is possible as Fimex has achieved good business results recently, especially in July and August.
The company’s shrimp production from its processing factories in the third quarter is estimated at 7,000 metric tons (MT), with export value reaching about USD 60 million (EUR 51.6 million), the highest levels ever recorded.
“These are not sudden and unusual results. In fact, it comes from the long-term development strategy prepared by ourselves,” Luc said.
Fimex has recruited an additional workforce of more than 500 workers for its processing factories since the outbreak of the coronavirus.
The company has maintained a list of key buyers for years, with many having been purchased shrimp from it since 1996.
Currently the United States is the most important market of Fimex, with year-on-year growth of about 10 percent.
But the European Union could become the largest market of the company after the COVID-19 outbreak is contained. Luc said Fimex is strong in selling its deeply-processed products to high-quality distribution channels in the bloc.
Moreover, the advantages in tariffs brought about by the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), effective from 1 August, will help processors from Vietnam compete effectively against similar deeply-processed products from Thailand, which has not signed any FTA with the E.U.
Sales to the bloc also has generated higher margins for the exporter than to the U.S., and its farms have already been certified to be shipped to the E.U. However, sales volumes sent from Vietnam to the E.U. by many other exporters are currently at low levels because not many farms in the country are certified to be eligible for exporting to the bloc.
Luc did not give any figure for Fimex’s profit this year. But he said the outbreak of diseases on shrimp in certain areas, along with a decline in prices, are likely to result in lower profits for Fimex in 2020, compared to 2019.
The chairman told SeafoodSource last week many farmers in Mekong Delta were reluctant to begin stocking during the current rainy season due to the impacts of diseases on farmed shrimp, especially enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP). Rains and low temperatures also discourage them from seeding, he added.
Photo courtesy of Fimex
