Vietnam PM aims high on shrimp exports

 VIETNAM’S Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has set a shrimp export target of $10 billion by 2030.
However, Prime Minister Nguyn Xun Phuc says the target is too low and can be reached by 2025. The country should become the world’s shrimp production base, he said.
But analysts are divided on the prospects of the target being met early.
Some said reaching $10 billion in 2025 would be difficult since the agriculture sector faced many challenges arising from the small, house hold scale of production, climate change and international integration.
Global seafood exports now are worth around US$130 billion, with shrimp accounting for only around 10 per cent, or $13 billion, they said.
According to the Food Agricul-ture Organisation of the United Nations, exports are growing at an average rate of around 15 per cent a year. 
But in reality, the experts who have doubts over the target say it will not be easy to achieve the 15 per cent growth rate.
Even if it is achieved the global trade in shrimp will only reach $30 billion by 2025.
For Vietnam to achieve $10 bil?lion in export value by 2025, it would have to both increase shrimp output and value addition of shrimp products.
Experts calculate that if the added value of shrimp is doubled by 2025, the country would earn $6 billion from exports.
For the remaining $4 billion, it would have to produce an additional 1 million tonnes of shrimp. 
Last year shrimp exports were worth $3.1 billion. To achieve |this, the country had to produce 650,000 tonnes.
Vietnam might be able to produce an additional 1 million tonnes of shrimp, but almost certainly cannot double value addition because its companies already process shrimp using advanced technology.
Le Van Quang, chairman of the Ca Mau-based Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Company, said his company has set a target of exporting $2 billion worth of shrimps by 2021.
It is a feasible plan since the company plans to make major changes to production, marketing and technology application, according to the chairman.
The prime minister said if Minh Phu alone could export $2 billion, Ca Mau province’s total exports could reach $4 billion and the remaining $6 billion could be managed by other provinces and cities. Thus, the $10 billion target could be achieved by 2025, he said.
Some analysts concur with Phuc, saying Vietnam’s shrimp industry enjoys all the conditions necessary to develop and make the country become the world’s shrimp production hub.
But they point out that the country needs to step up investment in infrastructure for shrimp farming and processing to boost productivity as well as add value.
Now a full 70 per cent of costs in shrimp production goes towards feed and medicines, most of which are imported.
Moreover, processors import 17 per cent of the shrimp they require.
Meanwhile, plagued by bad debts continue to pay low dividendTr?`n Thi??n Nguy?n, who owns.
 An invetor with shares in a joint stock bank based in Ho Chi Minh City hopes that this year the bank will pay higher dividends than in previous years.
In recent years banks had been paying very low dividends or even nothing, he said.
As a result, dividend payments have always been a hot topic at lenders’ annual shareholder meetings in recent years.
Analysts blame the low dividends on banks’ high bad debt levels and their slow recovery.
The chairman of a Ho Chi Minh-based bank with a chartered capital of 5 trillion dong (Bt 7.7 billion) said last year pre-tax profits were 484 billion dong – 10 per cent higher than the target. 
But it intends to pay a dividend of only around 5 per cent, the same as the 2015 rate.