Ho Chi Minh City – Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre (VNCPC), Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) and other partners on August 2nd 2013 launched a new project entitled “Establishing a Sustainable Pangasius Supply Chain in Vietnam" (SUPA). The project is worth of 2.4 million euro, of which the European Union finances 1.9 million Euro under the EU SWITCH-Asia Programme. The project is implemented by VNCPC in partnership with VASEP, WWF-Vietnam and WWF- Austria.
Speaking about the project, Ms Berenice Muraille, Development Counselor of the Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam said: "The project intends to improve the competitiveness of Vietnam’s Pangasius industry in the global market. Through this project, EU directly supports the entire Pangasius supply chain from hatcheries, feed producers and processers in Vietnam to traders and end-use customers, including those in the EU which is the largest market for Vietnam's pangasius export".
The 4 year long project, running from 2013 to 2017, will focus on capacity building, promotion of responsible production to increase product quality, mitigation of environmental impacts and reduction on production costs by applying Resources Efficiency and Cleaner Production methodology, product innovation and market development and promotion. The project also supports information exchange, techniques for households and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in applying the current sustainable standards as Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), Global GAP, etc, towards sustainable production aimed to increase the competitiveness of the Pangasius sector in the world market.
“SUPA is one of the supporting projects for Vietnam's Pangasius sector, which not only approaches from supply chain viewpoint but also applies “PUSH” and “PULL” methods for activities such as sustainable production and market promotion. It also includes the application of research results into practice”. Prof. Dr. Tran Van Nhan – Director of VNCPC emphasized.
It is expected that by the completion of the project, at least 70% of the targeted middle to large Pangasius producing and processing enterprises, together with 30% of the feed producers and small independent production SMEs will be actively engaged in Resources Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RE-CP), and at least 50% of targeted processing SMEs will be provided with sustainable products compliant with the ASC standard to EU and other markets.
Media Contacts: For further information, please contact Ms Vien Ngoc Bich, EU Delegation, tel: 04 9461783, email: bich.vien@eeas.europa.eu or Mr Le Xuan Thinh, Project Manager, Vietnam Cleaner Production Centre (Hanoi University of Science and Technology), Tel: 04 38684849 (ext 28), email: thinh.lx@vncpc.org