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Currently, only 30%-40% of seafood firms have enough capacity to resume production immediately after the end of social distancing Source: Internet

30-40% of businesses can start production again

Speaking at an online conference to discuss solutions to remove difficulties, restore processing and export of agricultural and aquatic products after the distance, according to Directive 16 of the Prime Minister in the southern region, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Today, September 17, 2021, Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that currently only 30%-40% of firms have the capacity to resume production immediately after the end of social distancing.

The remaining firms are very difficult or need a long time to restore production activities. The very high general cost of production is putting great pressure on firms to restore production.

After two months of implementing distance according to businesses, testing is a huge cost; there are currently no clear instructions. “Specifically, for manufacturing factories, what rules and principles are tested? If the employee has had one injection, how do they have to do? When having the second injection, do they have to test normally? Firms want to have guidance to ensure the principle of anti-pandemic," said Mr. Nam.

VASEP Deputy Secretary General further informed that at this time, when localities still give priority to anti-pandemic, the options for opening production can be partial or open for "three on-site" production, they must browser local level.

“Fishery firms want the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to give suggestions to localities so as to make this work faster and restore production; consider removing the 14-day quarantine for the force going to harvest fish in the provinces by PCR testing," Nam said.

From the perspective of specific export firms, Mr. Le Van Quang, Director of Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Company, said that currently, the business's orders were contracted a lot. Firms want to be able to deliver all orders without needing to sign a new contract."

Due to the distancing, the shrimp supply chain was almost broken; risk of serious shortage of raw materials in the last months of the year is remarkable. The company has actively increased shrimp prices so that farmers can increase shrimp farming and stocking., many people are worried about the outbreak of the disease, businesses do not buy, and prices fall.

“We worry that in October and November, we will not have raw materials to pay orders for foreign partners. Firms propose to deploy urgently and encourage people to stock shrimp from now so by the end of November, there will be raw shrimp for processing and exporting to Asian countries, and far away countries as Europe, America could not keep up," said Quang.

Change mind

Representatives of a number of firms processing and exporting agricultural products said that, in addition to creating favorable conditions in granting travel permits for means of transport, to relieve the congestion of products and goods from production areas to places of production. For export, to warehouses, factories, processing and production plants, to deliver goods to wharves, yards and seaports for export, the Government should issue a document directing provinces and cities to actively coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to build plans to restore agricultural production according to scenarios suitable to the situation of the Covid-19 pandemic in localities.

The agricultural and fishery industries are worried about the lack of raw materials for processing and exporting towards the end of the year. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

It is necessary to quickly come up with policies for raw material production areas, industrial clusters, and export processing zones to pull back workers and restore production and business in the new situation. This is the most important factor in ensuring the supply chain is not broken

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Tran Thanh Nam said to restore production after Covid-19, localities must agree on plans to guide production, harvesting and consumption of agricultural, livestock and aquatic products; at the same time, develop production plans during and after the quarantine period to ensure the stable and long-term production and supply of agricultural products.

Concluding speech, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasised that to solve difficulties, it is necessary to be change of "controlling and compliance" with the mindset of local people and businesses to work together so as to create a safe environment for both production and anti-pandemic.

“It may be impossible to solve all the problems for all businesses; even if only one business reopens, it is good, businesses reopening one day early is also good, it means that it is good for businesses, the economy, locality as well as the national economy," said Hoan.

Hoan said that in the future, localities and businesses must share and remove more difficulties. With major mechanisms and policies, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will accompany businesses and industries to make recommendations to the Government.