The country earned $4.95 billion from seafood exports during the first eight months of this year. — File Photo

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Creating effective seafood production chains was the focus of a conference in HCM City early this week.

Speaking at the conference, Jeff Sedacca from US organisation National Fish and Seafood (NFS) emphasised the need to pay more attention to developing small-scale farms, since they accounted for a large proportion of shrimp output. NFS had developed a sustainable shrimp breeding chain model that promoted close links between farmers, processors, investors and distributors, paving the way for farmers to improve their livelihoods, he said.

NFS coordinator for aquaculture certification James Baros noted that it was hard for small farms to obtain certification, as they often failed to meet international standards. Small producers co-operating with NFS were guaranteed to meet global standards, meaning their products could be sold worldwide.

The NFS project in Viet Nam would help local breeders produce shrimp in a sustainable manner, said Nguyen Huu Dung, vice president of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). He recommended that Vietnamese shrimp businesses work closely with farmers to develop shrimp breeding areas whilst applying quality and disease management systems in an effort to meet international food safety standards.

The country earned $4.95 billion from seafood exports during the first eight months of this year, up by 25.4 per cent compared to the same period in 2013, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. — VNS