OUTLOOK: HOW COVID IMPACTS ON VIET NAM ECONOMY & SHRIMP INDUSTRY

How about the current status of COVID-19 infection in Vietnam and its impact on the economy?

Last May till now, the covid is surging terribly in Viet Nam, especially in the northern provinces like Bac Giang, Bac Ninh and recent days covid is spreading widely in HCM (everyday about 50 – 100 cases but big problem is many cases can not know the roots of contamination that means the risk of more contamination is still there). As you know, HCM is the economic hub and also the gate to Mekong delta so that if we can’t control this new wave well then the covid might spread dangerously to other provinces in the south. Well, the government is strengthening to trace the roots of contamination and isolate, besides social distancing is carrying out seriously, together that vaccination is speeding up for whom in the first front of confrontation with covid. You know, 1 million doses of vaccines that Japan has just contributed for Viet Nam is vaccinating in HCM now, other sources of vaccines are also be mobilized to inject for vast of population as soon as possible.

For sure, Covid has been heavily impacting to Viet Nam economy, both domestically and internationally because Viet Nam is the export country in recent years. However; depending on each sector that the impact is different, ex: garment & textile is impacted a lot, aviation & tourism are almost dead, restaurants & eating halved, hotels & resorts died, agriculture in general is strongly affected because of the covid in importing markets or covid caused congestion of logistics ...meanwhile; sectors related to medical have grown significantly.

What is the status of the shrimp industry (1) hatchery, (2) farm, (3) factory)?

Shrimp industry is less impacted in general because Viet Nam has a diversity of exporting markets. As you know, Viet Nam mainly exports shrimp to US, Japan, EU, South Korea, China, Russia and other markets so that when Covid has happened since last year till now, the shrimp industry just had a short decline in last March and after that the export of shrimp has grown well thank to the booming of retail sales and digital trades. In this year 2021, some countries in Europe and US have been speeding up vaccination so that they reopened foodservices & dining out, so making the prices of big-size shrimp have increased in recently. Possibly, EU and US will have a beautiful summer vacation and end-year holidays ahead, so this will make the consumption of shrimp increased.

For hatchery: as you know, most of big hatcheries locate in south middle of Viet Nam (Binh Thuan & Ninh Thuan provinces), so far covid hasn’t come to these provinces so that production of post larva is still ok.

For farms: almost shrimp production focuses in Mekong delta (70 – 80%), the rest 20 – 30% scattered along the middle of Viet Nam (only farming of Vannamei on sand) but these areas are not impacted by Covid, so shrimp production is still good as usual.

For factories: most of factories locates in Mekong delta, some locates in HCM that mainly produce processed foods (impacted recently) and the rest locates in the middle so that possibly saying, covid does not affect to the processing of shrimp yet. Factories also strictly control people/materials/trucks...in and out, like I can’t visit factories recently because of Covid in HCM or when I can visit then I must notify and check temperature carefully, daily factories also monitor health of workers carefully to make sure production not affected much.

Source: SEABINA GROUP