As a member of Lenger Seafoods Group of the Netherlands, after more than 10 years of investment in Vietnam, Lenger Seafoods Vietnam Co., Ltd has been successful in processing, trading and exporting fresh, frozen and canned clam and bivalve mollusk products. These development steps have sent a positive signal for aquatic farming, processing and export in Nam Dinh province. Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr. Nguyen Ho Nguyen, General Director of Lenger Seafoods Vietnam Co., Ltd. Nguyen Bach reports.
Nam Dinh province is inherently strong in clam farming, making it a big economic sector. Besides domestic consumption, what do you think about export potential of local clam products?
With a 72-km coastline and three large estuaries of Ba Lat, Ninh Co and Day, Nam Dinh Coast is accumulated millions of cubic meters of alluvium every year to form vast coastal alluvial areas. This is a great advantage for localities to develop marine economy, including clam farming. Realizing the potential of clam farming, Nam Dinh province synchronously carries out solutions to build a closed production chain, from rearing clam seeds to production and processing of commercial clams, towards building a strong Nam Dinh clam brand in domestic and export markets.
In recent years, Nam Dinh's clam products are not only popular to domestic consumers but also become a main export that creates jobs and income for thousands of workers. Many households have made significant earnings from clam culturing. Currently, with more than 3,000 ha of clam farming, concentrated in Nghia Hung and Giao Thuy districts, Nam Dinh province annually supplies 35,000-50,000 tons of commercial clams and tens of billions of clam seeds to the market. Clam products of Nam Dinh in particular and Vietnam in general are highly appreciated for their taste, nutrition and flesh and favored in many major markets around the world.
How has Lenger Seafoods Vietnam Co., Ltd accompanied Nam Dinh province to bring clam products to domestic and international customers?
In searching for raw material areas, we chose Nam Dinh province to locate our seafood processing factory because it has many large clam farming areas to feed the facility. To meet strict export requirements, in 2012, we built a modern clam processing factory to clean clams and process fresh, frozen and canned clams. Furnished with modern advanced machinery and equipment imported from the Netherlands, the facility has a designed capacity of processing up to 300 tons of clams a day with a variety of products from fresh, frozen and canned clams of international quality standards. Every year, our factory is granted FSSC 22000, IFS Foods, SA8000, ASC & ASC CoC and Halal quality certificates of by international assessment agencies like SGS, BV and CU. Not only exported products, domestically sold clam products are certified the Vietnam Gold Fishery Quality Certificate by the Vietnam Fisheries Society (Vinafis) and the Vietnam High Quality Product by the Vietnam High-quality Enterprises Association, and 4-star OCOP Product by Nam Dinh Provincial People's Committee.
At the same time, we have actively built good relationship with clam suppliers and farmers to ensure enough input for the factory. Especially, in 2019, we built ASC clam production chain with farmers in Nam Dinh province. On May 13, 2020, the 500ha “Lenger Farm” production area in Nam Dien commune (Nghia Hung) was granted the certificate of ASC international clam farming sustainability, the first of its kind in Vietnam, becoming the first to obtain ASC certification for Meretrix lyrata clam, an international certification for sustainable farming, food safety and social responsibility.
As a result, in 2020-2021, despite being heavily affected by the mass death of clams and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted input supply and consumption chains, we managed to achieve good business results thanks to good relationships with domestic and export customers, suppliers and farmers. In 2021, we processed and exported over 7,707 tons of clams to Europe, the United States, South Korea, Japan and other markets for over US$14 million and sold 1,340 tons of clams in the domestic market for over VND48.5 billion through organic food stores and supermarkets such as Citimart, K-Mart, Hiway, Intimex, Vinmart and Lotte.
In the coming time, with its resources and strengths, how will Lenger Seafoods Vietnam Co., Ltd adopt a development strategy to continue its companionship with the province to uplift the class of clam products?
Inheriting experiences of Lenger Seafoods Group of the Netherlands in farming, fishing, catching, processing, domestically marketing and exporting clams and bivalve mollusk products, in the coming time, our company will strive to be a leading supplier of Meretrix lyrata clams in Vietnam and the world, with our mission to help formation of an clam farming and processing industry in Vietnam.
To accomplish these goals, our company has invested in projects to build high-tech clam hatcheries and inshore clam farming to reduce production costs, diversify products, supply high quality clam seeds to the market, not only for Nam Dinh province, to develop a sustainable clam farming industry in Vietnam. At the same time, we will continue to invest in equipment and expand factories to boost up production capacity and create safe and quality products with high nutritional values to conquer many fastidious markets in the world.
Thank you very much!
Source: Vietnam Business Forum
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi