New shrimp processing plants inaugurated

The thing that distinguishes it is in the scale of processing, processed products as well as the machinery and equipment for factory operations. The factory campus is nearly 6 hectares wide with four processing plants for separate products, all of which are value-added shrimp. The factory is equipped with 12 IQF freezers with a maximum processing capacity of about 20,000 tons of finished products per year, equivalent to 60 tons per day.

With this process, the factory is definitely in the top 10 largest shrimp processing factories in the country. At this location, the factory is very close to the largest shrimp material area in the country, accompanied with Quan Lo - Phung Hiep highway and Can Tho - Ca Mau freeway making it convenient for the export procedure. This scale costs nearly 400 billion VND and will create jobs for 4,000 workers.

In the era of Industrial Revolution 4.0 and the strong wind of digital transformation, seafood processing factories also raise the level of international competition. The effort of mechanizing and automating as many processing stages as possible to increase productivity, reduce dependence on labor, freeing up labor and increase product safety.

For the past 15 years, the application of compressor cascade to increase the depth of sound and cooling efficiency, shortening the product freezing time, saving energy, saving extra and fresher product. The factory is equipped with laser sizing machine, shrimp stretching device, automatic dough wrapping device, automatic finished product weighing device... This integration, although not absolute, is considered to be the leading in the moment. The processing capacity here has conditions to increase and the competitiveness increases accordingly - things that factory formed later always has such an advantage. However, that depends on the operator's perception and financial capacity. In fact, there are still many shrimp processing factories that are newly formed, smaller in scale, and left behind only a short time after operation.

Shrimp industry with an annual growth target of about 8%, is reaching about 8 billion USD in export turnover by 2030. The shrimp farming segment is showing many favorable signs such as the shrimp farming process and cooperation chains are getting gradually better; the new policy will help creating many shrimp farms of tens and hundreds of hectares, which will contribute to a significant reduction in shrimp prices; saltwater intrusion and climate change, from a positive perspective is an opportunity to expand the farming area… The processing segment is in sync with the farming segment.

In early 2021, Thuan Phuoc's An An factory was inaugurated and in the fourth quarter of 2022, Sao Ta's newly built factory will come into operation.

Minh Phu is building two processing plants at the same time with an even larger scale. Many other processing plants are being upgraded and expanded… Each large factory as mentioned above has the capacity to consume 30,000 - 50,000 tons of raw shrimp annually, ensuring that there is no excess of commercial shrimp, and keeping it intact. The selling price is quite stable, creating peace of mind for shrimp farmers.

The Vietnamese shrimp industry is ranked in the top of the world in terms of processing level. This new factory is probably at the top of our shrimp processing industry. It is something that matches the trend, shows its vision and enhances the increasingly fierce competition at home and abroad. I think this is more or less something to think about for new members who intend to participate in this strenuous activity - processing frozen shrimp for export.

Dr. Ho Quoc Luc - Former Chairman of VASEP, Chairman of the Board of Directors of FIMEX VN

Compiled by My Hanh