From 6th to 8th August 2014, the SWITCH-Asia Project "Establish a sustainable pangasius supply chain in Vietnam" (SUPA) has participated to the "Vietnam Fisheries International Exhibition (Vietfish 2014)", with its booth broadcasting information regarding activities and outcomes of the project to enterprises in the pangasius supply chain.
On the day before the opening of the exhibition, the SUPA project also hosted a tour of the pangasius farming areas in Ben Tre province and processing facility in Godaco Seafood Company located in My Tho Industrial Park, Tien Giang province. Visitors included European importers and retailers together with representatives of local and international media and aquaculture stewardship council certified farms. In addition, presentations were given of big importing companies from Brazil, Kazakhstan and other countries. During the tour, the importers highly appreciated the quality and scale of production in response to exporting standards, noting that what they observed on the ground differed from the image portrayed by broadcast media in Europe and South America.
During Vietfish 2014, SUPA together with the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exports and Producers (VASEP) hosted the Vietnam Pangasius Forum, titled "Towards sustainable growth for pangasius in Europe". The forum illustrated challenges and difficulties of Vietnam's pangasius market through presentations by speakers from the Directorate of Fisheries (Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development), Ministry of Industry and Trade, SUPA project, ANOVA Seafood company (the Netherlands) and ASC certification organization.
Presentations delivered during the Forum are available for download here.
The Forum was attended by more than 200 representatives, which included nearly 100 representatives from 80 pangasius producing and processing companies, representatives for local policy management authorities in the Mekong river delta, certification organizations, importers from Europe, South America and North America. Numerous questions and concerns were raised about importing markets (especially in Europe) and necessary standards for importing and exporting.
Following the success of Vietfish fair 2014, SUPA project partners intend to keep working together to organize the Annual Forum as a channel of exchange information for producers, importers and experts, policy makers in view of a sustainable and prosperous development of Vietnam's pangasius.