Sao Mai Seeking Solution for Catfish Raisers

 

This was stated one year ago by Mr Le Thanh Thuan, Chairman of Board of Directors and General Director of Sao Mai Group at a conference on the "farming cooperation" at Dong Xuyen Hotel, Long Xuyen City. At that conference, there were 60 typical households in the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap and Can Tho. They are "giants" fish raisers and most of them have experienced successes and difficulties for a long time so it was hard to convince them to believe in the promise of the person who was trying to link them together. However, the fact shows that in recent years, many seafood exporters got losses and could not afford costs for the raisers, leading to many hanging ponds and moderate farming.

 

Over one year ago, the farmers at Dong Thap conference with participation of the representatives of Vietnam Pangasius Association, leaders of departments, experts Provincial Fisheries Associations of An Giang and Dong Thap to evaluate the effectiveness of phase I of the "farming cooperation", General Director Le Thanh Thuan joked back: "I still keep the money on my promise of compensating for fish raisers suffering losses but unfortunately, so far no one have suffered losses at all."

 

This simple story turned out to be not that simple as many people thought because in 2015 and in the first months of 2016, the pangasius raisers continued to face many difficulties like falling export prices, technical barriers, anti-dumping activities of the main import markets. The prices of raw fish that also are falling down, even below the cost of production, have caused losses of many farmers. Yet, the farmers in association with Sao Mai Group still etprofit from VND900- 1,500 VND per kilogramme due to the stock outsourcing rate of VND4,600-4,800 per kilogramme. With output from 800-3,000 tonnes per household per year, the affiliate farmers made profit from VND1-4 billion per household that are dream amounts of the farmers who did not participate in this linkage.

 

 Improving feed quality

Joining this linkage, the farmers will take advantages of good farming techniques, Israel GlobalGAP standards of raising fish, low feed conversion ratio for cost savings and most importantly, the credibility of the business. According to Mr Thuan, at the period the raw fish prices were very low but the business was still committed to purchasing the fishes as the original agreement with the farmers. This helped Sao Mai to maintain a sustainable cooperation with the affiliate farmers. If not associated with Sao Mai Group, the fish farmers hardly survive. “In 2015, three fish stew I sold are satisfactory. In the context of constantly declining raw material prices, the farmers might suffer from losses if they raise fishes themselves. This linkage is truly a solution for catfish raisers today", noted Mr Huynh Thanh Binh, a fish farmer in Thot Not District, Can Tho. Supporting this view, Mr Truong Van Khanh from Lap Vo, Dong Thap said frankly: "The advantage of the farming linkage is price stability and profitability rather than as self-oscillation outside farming. Moreover, the feed prices provided by Sao Mai are also stable, with satisfactory quality."

 

According to Sao Mai Group, in 2015, the affiliate farmers in An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho provided 80 per cent of raw materials for the International Investment Development Corporation (IDI ) of Sao Mai Group. After the Seafood Processing Plant No. 2 in Lap Vo Industrial Complex, with capacity of 300 tonnes per day, the demands for raw materials will double to 600 tonnes per day, Sao Mai is strengthening linkages with farmers. At the same time, through Ranee, a premium cooking oil brand, Sao Mai continued to fund VND200 per kilogramme for good farmers, with total of nearly VND1 billion. This is considered a good opportunity to get affiliate households involved for stable development of farming areas. "To yield more from fish farming, the farmers need more feed processed from good materials under a good production technology. The feed made by Sao Mai meets this requirement", said Dr Le Thanh Hung, a lecturer of Ho Chi Minh University of Agriculture and Forestry.

 

In the near future, the quality of feed will be improved when Sao Mai Group launches the new feed processing plant in Lap Vo Industrial Complex, with a capacity of 360,000 tonnes per year, to meet the requirements of fish testing processes in the context of integration. This plant has a total investment of over VND500 billion, with modern design, high technology, and advanced equipments from suppliers such as the world famous Stolz (France), Andritz (Denmark), and Famsun. The project is under the intensive investment strategies in the areas of seafood farming and processing of Sao Mai Group. This aims to form a closed manufacturing catfish industry to enhance the value chain towards sustainable development, creating a solid foundation of business opportunities in deal with the TPP. This is affirmed once the FSIS IDI (Inspection Agency Food Safety) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has licensed the company to export the food products to the US market. At the same time, the IDI continues to emerge as one of the company's largest seafood exporters in Vietnam.