Vietnam, Norway seek cooperation opportunities in marine processing industry

The Business Summit brought about 70 participants representing nine Norwegian companies in the marine processing industry, Vietnam’s Directorate of Fisheries, Ministry of Science and Technology, Nha Trang University, Vinh Hoan Corporation, Vietnam Food, and other Vietnamese businesses operating in the marine sector.

The event aimed at introducing Norway’s technologies and products applicable for processing of seafood and marine rest raw materials and also serves as a forum for Vietnamese and Norwegian businesses to connect, discuss and find out solutions to cooperate and develop the fishery rest raw material processing industry in Vietnam.

“Vietnam already has over one million tons of rest raw materials available and this is a huge source of raw materials that enterprises can utilize. Although you have been using part of it, but to add more value to the final products for human consumption, Vietnam needs to have in place a good logistic chain”, said Mr Harald Naevdal, Commercial Counsellor of Norwegian Embassy in Hanoi.

Deputy Director General of the Directorate of Fisheries, MARD, Mr Tran Dinh Luan said “Annual volume of fishery products in Vietnam is over 7 million tons leaving 15-20% of the rest raw materials which can be used for high value products of both feed and human grade with potentially great economic benefits”.

This, however, cannot be done overnight. “It is necessary to change people’s mindset about rest raw materials. They are not wastes but resources”, said representative of Norwegian Company Skala AS.

“Vietnam and Norway are both coastal nations with many things in common. We are among the 10 largest fisheries nations in the world and sustainable development of aquaculture and fishery sectors is one of our shared goals.  Using marine rest raw materials more efficiently is one of the solutions” said Norway’s Ambassador designate Grete Løchen in her remarks.

Ten Norwegian companies are curently on a visit to Vietnam from November 7-17 to explore business opportunities and promote the bilateral cooperation in the biomarine industry. They all have seen great potential for cooperation between Norwegian and Vietnamese businesses in this industry. Some hope to find Vietnamese companies to be their suppliers of rest raw materials and to be part of their value chain.

Norway has extensive experiences, advanced technologies and equipment for treating and processing fishery rest raw materials into higher value products. “We are ready to share this with Vietnam so that instead of 70 years to reach the current level like Norway, Vietnam would need only 10 years,” said Norway’s Commercial Counsellor Harald Naevdal.