Lenger Seafoods Vietnam shipped its first container of ngao (clam) grown in northern Nam Dinh Province to Italy on Saturday, opening up new opportunities for local breeders.

Nam Dinh is home to about 2,000 hectares of clam farming, mostly in Giao Thuy and Nghia Hung districts that produce over 30,000 tonnes of clam annually, said Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Phung Hoan.

A majority of the locality’s clam have been consumed by local buyers while a small amount has been exported to China by petty traders.

After a year of construction, the Lenger Seafoods Vietnam, a member of Lenger Seafoods from the Netherlands, has become operational, setting the scene for the development of the seafood processing industry and clam farming in the province.

The company has also helped establish a supply chain, from breeding, harvesting, to transporting and processing, under strict requirements set by Italy.

Clam of Nam Dinh gaining access to the foreign market will bring in many benefits to the province, Hoan noted, urging businesses and farmers involved in the supply chain to comply with the importer’s requirements.

According to Nguyen Ho Nguyen, director-general of Lenger Seafoods Vietnam, the firm collects clam only from farms certified for cleanliness and safe water environment.

After harvesting, the clams will be processed in a closed hi-tech production line, from cleaning to preservation, to ensure they stay fresh when reaching the end consumers in the European Union (EU) market, he added.

Lenger Seafoods Vietnam can produce up to 300 tonnes of clam per day. It expects to export clam to more markets soon, including the Netherlands, Spain, France, the Republic of Korea, Japan and the United States.

It plans to send about 10 more containers of clam to the EU this June and develop a distribution channel in supermarkets and restaurants across the country. — VNS