(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company (FIMEX VN) has just announced that in March 2024, finished shrimp output reached 2,000 tons and finished shrimp consumption reached 1,693 tons, an increase of 74%, and 42% over the same period in 2023, respectively.
Meanwhile, finished agricultural product output reached 112 tons, and consumption reached 59 tons, down 53% and 57%, respectively, over the same period last year.
Accordingly, Sao Ta Foods recorded a total consolidated revenue of 19.17 million USD in March 2023, an increase of 32% over the same period in 2023. Thus, the total revenue of this enterprise in the first quarter of 2024 was estimated to reach 49.67 million USD (equivalent to 1,227 billion VND), an increase of 14% compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Notably, the company leadership said that they has harvested shrimp from shrimp farms stocked in the off-season since the end of November 2023, with quite positive farming results.
Since July 2023, Sao Ta Foods put into operation the Vinfarm farm in Vinh Thuan, helping to expand the farming area by 203 hectares, bringing the total farming area to 525 hectares with the ability to supply 16,000 tons of raw shrimp per year. When this farming area is fully operational, it will significantly improve the self-supply capacity of raw shrimp, leading to the expansion of Sao Ta Foods' gross profit margin.
It’s estimated that Sao Ta Foods' self-raised shrimp output this year will increase by 29% compared to 2022, helping the gross profit margin increase to 11%. Accordingly, this year's revenue and profit of Sao Ta Foods will increase by 10% and 25.5%, respectively, compared to the performance level of 2023.
Sao Ta Foods' Board of Directors is maintaining a cautious stance on this year's business prospects and expects that difficulties for the shrimp industry may last at least the first half of this year, amid risks from the shrimp crop, challenges of CVD case from the United States, as well as limitations in the domestic supply of shrimp materials due to farmers reducing stocking.
On March 25, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) issued a conclusion in the anti-subsidy investigation of frozen warm water shrimp (Warm Frozen Warmwater Shrimp under HS codes 0306.17, 1605.21, and 1605.29) that originates from Vietnam. DOC has set the preliminary anti-subsidy tax rate for Vietnamese enterprises as follows: 2.84% for a single mandatory defendant enterprise and all remaining enterprises; and 196.41% for a single defendant business that did not participate in the case.
This will cause more difficulties for Vietnamese shrimp products in the US market, which is facing fierce competition from cheaper shrimp products from Ecuador and India.
Sao Ta Foods is currently building a business plan for this year with the target of net revenue reaching 5,187 billion VND and consolidated profit before tax reaching 320 billion VND, an increase of 2% and 5%, respectively, compared to the year's performance in 2023. Thus, by the end of the first quarter of 2024, the company is estimated to have achieved 23.6% of the year's revenue target.
This year, Sao Ta Foods will continue to focus on deeply processed products, aiming to optimize costs and increase productivity by specializing in products at each factory and improving the quality of workers to achieve set business goals.