The State Bank of Vietnam has reported that the outstanding loans provided to the aquaculture and seafood processing sector increased by 11 percent in the first nine months of the year. However, the fisheries industry is still thirsty for capital.
Tran Xuan Chau, Deputy Director of the Credit Department of the State Bank of Vietnam, said the outstanding loans to the fisheries sector had reached 33,762 billion dong by September 30, an increase of 11.22 percent over 2011. The total outstanding loans to the sector has reached 59,933 billion dong so far.
“The credit to the sector has been growing sharply recently,” Chau said.
However, while Chau affirmed that big capital has been pumped into the fisheries sector, farmers and seafood companies still keep complaining that they would get bankrupted because of the lack of capital.
Huynh Minh Doan, Vice Chair of the Southwest Steering Committee, said the problem is that the capital has not been used for the right purposes.
“Seafood companies borrowed money to expand production and boost exports. However, in fact, they threw money into real estate or stock investments. As a result, they incurred losses when the real estate and stock prices went down, while they still lack capital,” Doan said.
