Seafood companies will adjust their business strategies and organizational structures in order to achieve their targets for 2013, which is forecast to be no less difficult than this year.
This was informed by seafood firms attending a review conference on the program to help members of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) adapt to the economic slowdown this year.
Nguyen Thi Hong Nhanh, HR director of Mekong Fisheries Joint Stock Co., specializing in shrimp exports, said the difficulties in 2012 were caused by input materials, economic gloom in the consumption markets and technical trade barriers in some importing countries. Therefore, the company’s revenue in the year to date has fallen by about 30% compared to the same period last year.
“Next year we will focus on lower-priced products, switching from tiger prawn to white-legged shrimp. The business targets will be equivalent to this year. As for the organizational structure, our management apparatus will be rearranged to make it simpler and maintain a workforce of over 1,000 employees,” she said.
Lam Ngoc Hai, deputy director of Saigon-Mekong Fishery Co., with tra fish being its specialized item, said he had attended a counseling program for management system reform of seafood enterprises held by VASEP and the Danish Embassy.
In the coming time, the company will map out a long-term business strategy with specific objectives and plans for each year instead of the current short-term strategy. “If we had received guidelines for business organization sooner, then our business performance this year would have been much better,” he said.
Recently, raw tra fish prices have been dropping. Hai ascribed this situation to the increase in the number of industry players.
“At current prices, most enterprises make low profits or break even. Some even incur losses but still have to sell their products,” he said.
Therefore, Saigon-Mekong revenue has declined year-on-year and is still 5% off target.