On July 18, in My Tho city, Tien Giang province, Vietnam Fisheries Association in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Tien Giang Province held "Workshop on updating MSC standard and encouraging the linkage within the value chain of clam in Tien Giang province”. Mr. Le Thanh Luu, Director of the Center for International Cooperation for Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries, Mr. Luong Dinh Lan, coordinated and managed the Oxfam project in Vietnam, Mr. Trinh Cong Minh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Tien Giang province hosted the workshop.
Attending the workshop were representatives of Vietnam Fisheries Society, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Oxfam in Viet Nam, Tien Giang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Department of Agro – Forestry – Fisheries Quality Assurance, Tien Giang Agricultural Extension Center, clam producing, processing and exporting enterprises and local farmers.
The production and processing of clams is an important source of livelihood, contributing to the improvement of income and financial wellbeing for millions of small scale farmers in Vietnam. In addition to the positive results in production, processing and export, there are still many economic, social and environmental challenges that seriously threaten the sustainable development of the clam industry. Furthermore, the connection between participating units in the clam value chain is lax and ineffective, not ensuring fairness and transparency. This has negatively affected the quality, traceability of the product and reduced the competitiveness of Vietnamese clam products.
Since 2009, Ben Tre's clam products have got the MSC certification. This is a great success for clam products to expand its market into Europe, North America, Spain and South Korea. Since then, the price of clam products that are certificated by MSC also increased from 25% to 30% to help raise farmers' income. Especially, clam farming sector is developed towards sustainably, environmentally and ecological friendly. Starting from the success of the clam farming industry in Ben Tre, funded by the European Union, Oxfam in Vietnam cooperated with the International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS), Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry jointly implemented the project "Inclusive and sustainable clam value chains development in Vietnam” in 03 provinces of Ben Tre, Tien Giang and Tra Vinh.
ICAFIS has worked closely with international organizations such as Oxfam, World Bank, IUCN, FAO, GIZ, etc in recent years to implement many projects for aquaculture and fisheries to help the fisheries sector in general and beneficiary in particular to develop sustainably and enhance the value chain. In the framework of the project, ICAFIS in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of provinces of Tien Giang, Ben Tre and Tra Vinh organized the "Workshop on updating MSC standards for clam and certification-oriented solutions in the value chain". In order to support and enhance the ability and business performance of small-scale producers, the processing enterprises follow sustainable standards while promoting market access and favorable policy environment for developing clam value chain integrating sustainable production principles towards MSC.
Currently, MSC certification is an ecologically-focused certification in the world. The world's consumer markets are particularly interested in this certification. In future, MSC certification will be considered as a “passport” and a compulsory condition for enterprises to export Vietnamese clam to world markets. Therefore, the achievement of the MSC certification right now will help Vietnamese enterprises build a certified clam brand to gain access to potential and high value markets such as Europe, Japan.
At the workshop, Mr. Dinh Xuan Lap, Deputy Director of the International Collaborating Centre for Aquaculture and Fisheries Sustainability (ICAFIS), said that the workshop was also a place for provincial representatives to exchange experience in organizing manufacturing and to manage the sustainable exploitation of clam resources. The workshop will also be a bridge for Vietnam's fisheries sector to access new information on the difficult situation and market access opportunities to form a base for completing the system of institutional policies, solutions and fisheries management model in general and the clam industry in particular towards the goal of sustainable development. Encouraging farmers and enterprises to connect together in the chain towards MSC certification will help improve farmer's roles, increase economic benefits, protect ecological environment and stabilize social and industry development.
One of the questions raised by the farmer for managers and processors is what benefit they will get while joining the chain to get MSC certification. Regarding this issue, Mr. Dinh Xuan Lap responded that currently MSC certified products will easily penetrate into the fastidious market, improve added values, helping farmers and enterprises have a stable output. In fact, the value of MSC certified products are higher by 30-50% comparing to ones that not certified by MSC certification. In addition, in current consumer trend, MSC certification will be a necessary condition to reach more than 100 potential markets in over the world. Furthermore, current market for clam productions is still very large. Vietnam should take the opportunity to expand the market right now. In order to do so, Vietnamese farmers and enterprises need to build the ecological brand for clam products from farms to tableby getting the MSC certification.
At the workshop, Ms. Tran Thi Thu Nga, Chairman of Ben Tre Fisheries Association, highlighted Ben Tre’s experience in developing clam culture. She said that in the past, people in Ben Tre andother provinces believed that clam was gift from God, thus, farmers had no ideas on protecting or sustainably exploit the resource. According to her, the MSC certification is not a magic wand that helps increase the selling price of the clam products, but more importantly, it brings sustainable income and benefit to the community of locals whose lives rely on natural resources. Moreover, the social security and environmental issues are sustainably protected. That matter is very concerned by special consumption countries. Certification of MSC will help Vietnamese clam productions have a steady position in the market, increasing their competitiveness and thus raising their market value.
Attending the workshop, Mr. Phan Van Sinh - a clam farmer in Go Cong district, Tien Giang province - said that local farmers are very glad and actively involves in developing of the clam value chain and making their clam products meet the MSC certification’s requirements. In recent years, farmers have been trained, coached and guided to understand the procedures for achieving MSC certification for clams through training courses. However, farmers still face many difficulties in the implementation of process, due to limitation of farmer’s ability and old production practices, in which keeping daily records and production diary is still limited. Besides, climate change also affects the growth and development of clams. He suggested government management agencies supporting local farmers in providing technical methods to minimize the impacts of climate change. He also recommended agencies to provide information and warn about the farming environment so that farmers can understand and regulate their production process as well as stocking time. Furthermore, there should be support from the processing enterprises for stable consumption of clam products.
In the future, to sustainably develop clam farming, it requires the close participation of all units in the value chain. Hence, Vietnam's clam brands can be presented in the whole world markets. To achieve that goal, farmers and enterprises need to understand the compulsory of MSC certification and its important role.
Phương Hoa- Directorate of fisheries.
