Vietnam: lack of raw material

2012 will be a favourable year for sales of bigfin reef squid, cuttle fish and squid products; however, Ngo Quyen Processing Export Joint Stock Company (NGOPREXCO) still worries about lack of raw material for processing. According to VASEP, NGOPREXCO has completed the construction of its two processing factories - cephalopod processing plant with capacity of 2,500 MT per year and surimi processing plant with production capacity of 1,800 MT per year.

Since the end of 2011, NGOPREXCO had stopped exporting octopus products because it was unable to purchase enough raw material and got low profits, VASEP informs. The company purchased raw materials for processing mainly from domestic sources through its nationwide agencies. In 2011, NGOPREXCO mainly processed value-added squid for export to Japan, the EU and some Asian countries. So far, Germany and Italy remained stable markets of NGOPREXCO thanks to high price and strong consumption. For 2012, it expects to increase proportion of squid exported to the EU to 20%.