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The Vietnam News

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Seafood companies eye business chances from Vietfish

Vietnamese seafood exporters are highly eager for trade opportunities at the international fisheries trade fair called Vietfish 2003 opening in HCMC on Saturday.

Song Tien Ltd. of Tien Giang Province, which exports US$7-8 million worth of clam each year, with the European Union taking 80%, is seeking more overseas buyers of clam besides the EU importers, director Nguyen Thi Anh said. Among exhibits of her company is concentrated clam juice, which the company mainly ships to Japan. The juice is concentrated from clam boiling water, a by-product at many other seafood companies.

Thanh Ha Ltd. in Phu Quoc Island, one of the two Vietnamese fish sauce manufacturers allowed to sell fish sauce to the EU, attends the fair to look for more orders from the market, director Nguyen Thi Nguyet Ha said. Ha added that her company’s main foreign market was the U.S.

The Hanoi-based Sinh Nam Ltd. is showcasing a device for checking antibiotic residues in seafood. This equipment is manufactured by the U.S. company Charm that has supplied equipment for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The U.S. firm Laitram, meanwhile, showcased at the fair a special device for peeling shrimp skin. The equipment captures much interest from visitors, and the firm’s distributor said it had received an order from a Mekong Delta-based company.

Deputy Fisheries Minister Nguyen Thi Hong Minh said the fair is a good chance for companies to look for new buyers at a time fisheries exports are facing new barriers erected by importing countries. “Participating seafood companies expect many business opportunities from Vietfish 2003 because Vietnam’s fisheries industry is facing many difficulties arising from non-tariff barriers by importing countries, the war and SARS,” she said.

This is the fifth annual running of Vietfish since it was organized first in 1998. Vietfish 2003 has 191 booths manned by 124 exhibitors including 24 foreign companies and organizations, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep), one of the organizers.

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) was expected to conclude whether Vietnam dumps basa and tra fish fillets on the American market today, Vasep general secretary Nguyen Huu Dung said.

Dung and Vasep vice chairman Ngo Phuoc Hau have left for the U.S. to participate in the hearing about the DOC conclusions before the U.S. International Trade Commission tomorrow. Late next month, the commission will make final decisions over the anti-dumping case, which the Catfish Farmers of America had charged Vietnam of dumping fish fillets on the U.S. market.

The Saigon Times Daily - June 15, 2003