Vaccines for shrimp enterprises 

Soc Trang Online - In the context of the Covid-19 epidemic spreading on a large scale in the southern provinces and cities, seafood processing and exporting enterprises were forced to reduce production under the "3 on-site" option. However, this is only a temporary solution to help enterprises maintain production, but if to survive, recover and grow, the best solution is to have early and adequate vaccines for workers, according to enterprises.

After more than 3 weeks of implementing the "3 on-site" regulation, Mr. Nguyen Dang Khoa - General Director of Thai Hoa Food Joint Stock Company said that shrimp factories are exhausted because of the very high costs and very difficult to retain employees for a long time. According to Mr. Khoa, only the costs of food, accommodation, and periodic rapid testing for employees alone, the cost has also increased quite a lot, while the labor capacity has decreased. Therefore, the "3 on-site" should end as soon as possible, if the "3 on-site" is prolonged then the businesses will not be able to bear it because the costs are too large, and the employee is confined and feel uncomfortable and they do not want to stay longer to work. In fact, in just over 3 weeks, there have been a number of workers fleeing home because of homesickness, having children, sick relatives who have no one to take care of, wives giving birth...

An early and complete vaccine is needed for businesses to maintain and resume production, ensuring the dual goal of "effectively fighting the epidemic and ensuring economic growth". Photo: TICH CHU

With the same difficulty when implementing "3 on-site", Mr. Ho Quoc Luc - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company (Sao Ta Company) said, the difficulty in implementing "3 on-site" is not only the cost has increased quite a lot but the workers are not calm, so the productivity is only moderate.

Mr. Vo Van Phuc - General Director of Vietnam Clean Seafood Joint Stock Company (Vinacleanfood) when talking about difficulties when implementing "3 on-site" is only encapsulated in 2 words "full of". Phuc listed: “Due to not enough workers, the company had to close a factory, many products could not be produced, could not be delivered to partners, workers demanded to return because they could not bear the bondage. Moreover, the number of employees who stay is gathered from many processing stages, so they are not specialized, leading to lower productivity than usual, while all costs such as accommodation, living expenses, and working allowances" 3 on-site”, the cost of Covid-19 epidemic prevention and control… all increased sharply”.

In that difficult context, according to shrimp businesses in Soc Trang, thanks to the attention of the provincial leaders, recently, all employees working under the "3 on-site" have been vaccinated with 1 shot against Covid-19. At Thai Hoa Company, 100% of workers who work on-site are vaccinated, but according to Mr. Khoa, this number only meets about 30% of the company's needs. Similarly, other shrimp enterprises such as: Sao Ta Company, Vinacleanfood, Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Company (Stapimex), Khanh Sung Co., Ltd.... also have 30-40% of their employees vaccinated against Covid-19. Although it is not much but  businesses also appreciate the above move of the provincial leaders in accompanying them through the difficult time of the pandemic.

Talking to the writer about the importance of vaccines in maintaining and restoring production and business, shrimp enterprises all said that, in the current Covid-19 epidemic, vaccines are considered the unique & prerequisite solution for business survival. Therefore, shrimp workers need to be fully vaccinated with 2 doses as soon as possible, because otherwise, the problem of labor will not be solved and the business will not be able to survive.

Mr. Phuc suggested: "According to research in many countries around the world, vaccines only reduce severe cases and deaths, so if injections are slow and incomplete, the risk of severe cases or deaths is very high, badly affect to production and cause a health crisis. Therefore, businesses want to be vaccinated as soon as possible so that in case of bad situations, the factories can still operate normally without having to be closed."

Also related to the issue of vaccines, businesses also suggest that it is necessary to vaccinate the right people to avoid not enough vaccines for the community, the economy can still stand up until there are enough vaccines, helping to maintain the dual goal of "effectively fighting the epidemic and ensuring economic growth". According to Mr. Phuc, in order to bring shrimp industry activities back to a new normal status, besides the vaccine solution, it is necessary to have more solutions on drugs to treat Covid-19 and strictly follow the 5K recommendation of the Ministry of Health to be able to live with Covid-19 without major damage.

Because production costs under the "3 on-site" are very high, causing many difficulties for businesses, businesses also suggest that the Government, ministries, departments and localities should soon have policies to support businesses about electricity, water, taxes, bank interest rates ... to help businesses overcome difficulties soon, seize opportunities to recover and speed up after the epidemic.

Source: Soc Trang online, SEABINA GROUP's translation