Retail News CRM

Tag: Vietnam

  • Vietnam H1 seafood exports up 12.3 pct

    Vietnam H1 seafood exports up 12.3 pct

    Seafood export value rose 12.3 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2018 to reach $4 billion, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

    Shrimp led the export earnings with $1.6 billion, followed by catfish and tuna. Catfish export value experienced the most significant increase by reaching $1 billion, a 21 percent increase over the same period last year.

    Except for the European Union (EU), catfish exports to other markets saw positive growth, especially China and the United States. VASEP expects catfish exports increase dramatically throughout the year.

    The U.S. remained the biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood at $620 million in the first six months, followed by Japan and China. Mexico was the fastest growing market with $50 million, an increase of nearly 77 percent over the same period last year.

    Previously, the EU “yellow card”, a warning to Vietnam seafood about export bans if it failed to tackle illegal fishing, had disrupted tuna and other seafood exports in the first 3-4 months of the year, causing total exports to the European market to slow down. However, exports to this market are forecast to rebound in the second half of the year.

    Vietnam ranks among the top ten seafood producers in the world, according to the FAO, the U.N. food and agriculture organisation.

    Vietnam exported $8.32 billion worth of seafood last year, an 18 percent growth over 2016, said the VASEP.

  • US to import Vietnamese mangoes

    US to import Vietnamese mangoes

    The United States is completing procedures to approve import of Vietnamese mangoes, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Censky said at a meeting in Washington D.C. on Tueday.

    The U.S. will also start importing star apples form Vietnam soon, Censky told Vietnamese Deputy Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, who is on an official visit to the U.S.

    Censky proposed that Vietnam considers importing fruits like blueberry and several citrus varieties from the U.S.

    At the meeting, Hue said that the U.S., as one of Vietnam’s top trade partners, should increase its agriculture cooperation with Vietnam towards supporting low emission production models.

    He also suggested that the U.S. considers importing grapefruit and other fruits from Vietnam.

    Vietnam’s exports to the U.S. last year reached $41.61 billion, an increase of 8.2 percent in over 2016. Fruit exports of $102 million accounted for just 0.2 percent of total export to the U.S., according to Vietnam Customs.

    The U.S. was Vietnam’s third largest trade partner last year, behind Korea in second place and China at the top.

  • Vietnamese coffee maker gets an energy boost

    Vietnamese coffee maker gets an energy boost

    Vinacafe Bien Hoa (HoSE: VCF) is placed among the top three instant coffee producers in Vietnam, alongside Trung Nguyen and Nestle.

    After reaching its peak in 2014, however, the company’s coffee segment went through a stiff drop in revenue which was recorded at VND1.7 trillion ($74.6 million) last year, a decline of VND300 billion year-on-year and VND550 billion compared to the record high in 2014.

    Its portion of revenue generated by instant coffee has plummeted from 80 percent to 50 percent.

    This trend is not unique, as revenues of Trung Nguyen, its major rival, have stayed flat in the last three years at around VND3.8 trillion ($166.8 million).

    According to several market research firms, the market share of caffeine drinks is now being eaten up by energy-boosting alternatives to coffee, like energy drinks and bottled tea.

    This trend has helped Vinacafe offset sluggish sales of instant coffee. It introduced the coffee-flavored energy drink under Wake-up brand in 2014. The new product quickly gained popularity in a market dominated by Thailand’s Red Bull, PepsiCo’s Sting and local Number 1.

    Revenue of Wake-up 247 has gone up four-fold in three years. Last year, it was recorded at more than VND1.2 trillion ($52.7 million), an in crease of 55.5 percent from 2016. The gross profit of the energy drink was VND557 billion, corresponding to a gross profit margin of 45.5 percent, higher than the figure of coffee by 12 percentage points.

    Vinacafe has targeted VND3.1-3.3 trillion in revenue this year, a 5 percent year-on-year decline. However, it aims at higher post-tax profit of VND450-500 billion, up 21-35 percent from 2017.

    To achieve these targets, the company will focus on rebuilding its instant coffee brands by relaunching some products with new makeovers. For the energy drink, it seeks to expand production and distribution.

    At the general meeting last April, Nguyen Tan Ky, general director of Vinacafe, said the company has changed its distribution model to secure a two-digit growth rate in face of stiff competition.

    Its products are now sold through a nationwide network of its parent company Masan Beverage, a wholly owned subsidiary of consumer goods giant Masan Consumer under Masan Group.

  • Capillary Technologies Leads Bata’s Omnichannel CRM Journey to New Markets in Southeast Asia

    Capillary Technologies Leads Bata’s Omnichannel CRM Journey to New Markets in Southeast Asia

    Capillary Technologies, a Singapore-based company that provides consumer insights, personalised engagement, omnichannel commerce and loyalty solutions, has been appointed as a strategic partner of Bata, a leading shoe brand. The partnership will help Bata strengthen their omnichannel CRM strategies in Philippines and Vietnam.

    Beyond these two markets, for more than three years Capillary has been acting as Bata’s CRM partner in six Asian countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and also three African countries – Kenya, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

    Capillary powers Bata’s loyalty program, develops targeted & personalised, omnichannel campaigns, and performs in-depth consumer and business analytics for over 2,000 stores across these markets. With the goal to provide a unified CRM platform for all its markets, Bata will be kicking off its game plan for Philippines and Vietnam in the second half of 2018.

    “We want to bring together exceptional products, and best-in-class retail technology to realise our passion for customer delight and deliver an exceptional customer experience. To really improve our brand-customer relationships, we feel it is imperative for us to find ways to walk and talk with our consumers across the various channels and touch points they use in their buying journey. The engagement had to be consistent, connected and seamless.” said Roberto Longo, President, Asia Pacific, at Bata. “Capillary has helped us achieve this, having been our trusted partner across six countries in Asia. There was no doubt about banking on Capillary’s expertise and innovative technology to take us ahead in Philippines and Vietnam.”

    With Capillary, Bata has been able to achieve 2.2X higher returns from targeted campaigns in Singapore and as high as 57X ROI from Facebook campaigns in Malaysia. In other markets as well, the brand has seen 10X increase in ROI from its overall CRM investments. With Capillary’s assistance, the brand has won multiple awards, most recently for the best use of analytics and also for their CRM and Loyalty program in Singapore and Malaysia respectively, in 2018.

    “We didn’t want to be just another shoe brand to our consumers. A brand they might be buying from once in a while. Instead, we wanted to build a close relationship with them and become a part of their lives. Thanks to Capillary, through targeted campaigns, insight backed CRM decisions, and omnichannel engagement, we believe we have made some lifelong customers” added Longo.

    Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, President & Managing Director, Global Accounts and Asia Pacific, at Capillary Technologies, also expressed Capillary’s delight in propelling Bata’s expansion into new markets: “This year, we foresee that Capillary will continue to grow exponentially across the globe. Our association with leading brands like Bata, who have partnered with us in many markets, reinforces the fact that the trajectory we have chosen for the company is the right one. We are definitely thrilled to help Bata in expanding its footprint in the Asia region.”

    In Southeast Asia, Capillary is working with 14 million customers and has more than 14 hundred stores active on its platform, including Mitra10, Bata, Caring Pharmacy, TungLok Group and McDonald’s. Fresh off a US$20m funding round led by existing blue chip investors Warburg Pincus and Sequoia Capital, Capillary also plans to use some of the new funds in strengthening its presence in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, after achieving a threefold growth in the region.

     

  • Lotte Duty Free to open its second store in Vietnam

    Lotte Duty Free to open its second store in Vietnam

    Lotte Duty Free said Sunday that it has opened its second store in Vietnam at Nha Trang Cam Ranh International Airport as it strives to expand its presence in the Asian market and better serve Chinese and Russian visitors.

    The company, a major player in the duty-free business, said its new store started operating Saturday, as the new passenger terminal at the airport opened for business. It said Lotte has the sole rights to operate the duty-free store at the airport until 2028.

    The airport serves the Nha Trang area in the central part of the Southeast Asian country, with both domestic and international flights being offered to users.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • EU set to lift ‘yellow card’ on Vietnam fisheries next year

    EU set to lift ‘yellow card’ on Vietnam fisheries next year

    Vietnam will have to wait another six months for the European Union to consider lifting a ‘yellow card’ restriction slapped last year because of illegal fishing.

    After an evaluation done May 15-24 this year, the EC decided that they would consider lifting the yellow card in January next year, as Vietnam has shown “improvement,” according to a statement issued by the Directorate of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

    The European Commission (EC), executive body of the 28-nation bloc (including the U.K.), had issued an official warning on October 23 last year that it would ban seafood imports from Vietnam unless Hanoi did more to tackle illegal fishing carried out by Vietnamese vessels in other countries’ territories.

    The directorate, however, admitted that problems continued to dog the sector, especially in controls of fishing and tracing origins.

    Vietnam currently has around 33,000 offshore fishing vessels, but only 3,000 of them, or 9 percent, are equipped with satellite navigation devices, it said, adding that the high cost of installation was a constraining factor.

    Though Vietnam has acted on suggestions from EC last year to improve controls over offshore fishing in the 2017 Fishery Law, there was still room for improvement in the actual implementation process at local provinces, the directorate said.

    Vietnam ranks among the top ten seafood producers in the world, according to the FAO, the U.N. food and agriculture organisation.

    The E.U., the world’s biggest fish importer, adopted a regulation that took effect in 2010, aiming to avoid complicity in illegal fishing and promote sustainable use of the sea resources.

    The EC estimates that each year, between 11 and 26 million tons of fish, at least 15 percent of the global catch worth 8 and 19 billion euros, are caught illegally.

    Lees ook:

  • Mandatory addition of micronutrients hurting Vietnam’s food industry

    Mandatory addition of micronutrients hurting Vietnam’s food industry

    A decree requiring the addition of micronutrients to food products is making them unattractive and more difficult to sell, industry insiders say.

    The decree, which went into effect last year, requires businesses to include iodine in salt and iron and zinc in wheat flour.

    Asahira Keita, deputy marketing director of food firm Acecook Vietnam, said the mandatory inclusion of minerals like iron or zinc in flour has hurt his company.

    Keita said the resulting flour has a darker color than normal flour. Its texture also changes and makes the end product less appealing to customers, he added.

    “To make our food products more appealing, we would have to research new recipes, which would certainly cost us more,” he said.

    Keita had other concerns too. Several countries don’t allow the inclusion of micro-nutrients in food products, so Vietnamese food firms would need to go through lengthy procedures to export food products with micronutrients into such countries. Foreign customers are also not fond of food products with micro-nutrients, he said.

    “This is a tough challenge for businesses like ours. We might even have to stop exporting products into these long-time partner countries, just because they don’t have the same requirements as Vietnam does,” Keita said.

    He said one solution could be to create two types of flour separately; one for domestic use and another to be exported. But doing so would be too costly and expensive, as the firm, which is currently deploying an automation-focused production model, can only afford one automated system. Right now, it is being used to make flour infused with iron and zinc for domestic use.

    Therefore, flour without iron or zinc that is used for export products, must be manually packaged.

    “This is too costly, time-consuming and inefficient,” said Keita.

    Processing challenges

    Businesses are also finding it hard to follow the decree’s guidelines as the processing method could change the levels of micro-nutrients in the products.

    Lam Ba Nhi, quality control director of Vietnamese meat processing firm Vissan, said the application of heat during food processing could destroy the iodine included in food products.

    Therefore, when food products are tested, levels of iodine present could be lower than the decree’s mandates, Nhi said.

    Lam proposed that the inclusion of iodized salt should not be made compulsory in food processing.

    Last month, the government had said the Health Ministry should carry out further research so that appropriate changes can be made to the decree, in which the inclusion of micro-nutrients in food products should only be encouraged, and not made compulsory.

    The Ministry of Health has not responded since.

    “We want the Ministry of Health to take action and follow the government’s suggestion,” said Nguyen Hoai Nam, deputy general secretary of Vietnam Association of Seafood and Producers.

    The decree came in the wake of advice from the Iodine Global Network, which ranks Vietnam among the top 19 iodine-deficient countries.

    The network had advised that Vietnamese people use iodized salt directly in food seasoning, food processing, and livestock feeding.

    Prolonged iodine deficiency can cause nerve damage among infants and children; and make pregnant women suffer miscarriages or go into preterm labor. Adults can also suffer goiter, nerve damage and mental illness.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Honor debuts in Vietnam with first offline store

    Honor debuts in Vietnam with first offline store

    Huawei sub-brand Honor Vietnam has opened its first physical store in the country after three years selling online and via distributors.

    Located on Nguyen Hue Street in downtown, the new store attracted hundreds of Honor’s fans from the early morning.

    Apart from products already on sale in the country, Honor introduced its newest lines, including the Honor MagicBook.

    Vietnam is a part of Honor’s overseas expansion in Asia Pacific, along with Europe and the Middle East.

    Zhao Ming, Honor president, said overseas sales have doubled during the past five months, and he expects them to rise further in the second half of the year.

    The brand entered the Philippines last month.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • GrabTaxi reiterates Vietnam-wide operations completely legal

    GrabTaxi reiterates Vietnam-wide operations completely legal

    Ride-hailing firm Grab Vietnam insists that its GrabTaxi service is legally allowed to operate nationwide.

    Grab Vietnam countered that GrabTaxi is an app for an e-commerce platform, so its operations would be in accordance with the government’s e-commerce laws.

    Grab Vietnam made the statement after the Transport Ministry has recently shot down a GrabTaxi plan to extend its services to provinces like Ninh Thuan, Dong Thap and Gia Lai. The ride-hailing firm now is allowed to operate in the five cities and provinces of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh.

    However, the firm said its GrabTaxi service is quite different from the GrabCar, which operates in the five above-mentioned provinces and cities, as a part of the ministry’s pilot plan for tech-based transportation services.

    Both GrabTaxi and GrabCar operate under the same Grab application, but GrabTaxi offers a run-of-the mill taxi service, while GrabCar is a service which connects customers with private cars for ride-hailing purposes.

    Therefore, GrabTaxi should be allowed to operate nationwide, stressed the firm.

    This isn’t the first time the ride-hailing firm has clashed with the Transport Ministry. In January, when Grab Vietnam wanted to extend its GrabTaxi service to provinces like Thua Thien Hue, Ba Ria – Vung Tau and Lam Dong, the firm also released a similar statement.

    Grab is currently under an investigation by Vietnamese authorities who say that its acquisition of Uber’s Southeast Asia operations shows signs of breaching local antitrust laws.

    A Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) investigation found that Grab’s market share in Vietnam had exceeded 50 percent after its ride-hailing rival Uber left the Southeast Asian market in April.

    Under Vietnamese law, mergers and acquitions that result in a company gaining over 50 percent of the market share are restricted in Vietnam.

    The investigation, which began on May 18, is estimated to take 180 days and can be extended for another 120 days.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • GM to transfer Vietnam operation to Vingroup’s car arm, eyes sales boost

    GM to transfer Vietnam operation to Vingroup’s car arm, eyes sales boost

    General Motors (GM.N) has agreed to transfer its Vietnamese operation to VinFast Trading and Production LLC and distribute Chevrolet cars through the local carmaker, in a move that could help drive up its modest sales in the country.

    The U.S. automaker will transfer full ownership of its Hanoi factory to VinFast for the Vietnamese firm to produce small cars under a GM global license from 2019, the companies said in a statement on Thursday, without disclosing a value for the deal.

    As part of the deal, VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s biggest private conglomerate – Vingroup JSC VIC.HM, will be the exclusive distributor of the Chevrolet in Vietnam.

    “The GM-VinFast strategic partnership will best position the Chevrolet brand and dealer network for long-term growth in Vietnam by leveraging GM’s global scale and expertise, married with VinFast’s domestic strength and insight,” said Barry Engle, executive vice president and president of GM International.

    The transfer, which includes GM’s Hanoi plant, dealer network and employee base, is expected to be conducted by the end of 2018, the companies said in the statement.

    GM used its Hanoi plant to assemble Chevrolets with parts imported from South Korea – a country where the U.S. automaker came close to bankruptcy as it struggled to turn around its debt-laden unit. GM Korea is GM’s biggest production base in Asia excluding China.

    The plant will be used solely to produce VinFast cars after the transfer, while Chevrolet cars will be imported.

    VinFast said this partnership with GM was “integral” to its plan to “launch a portfolio of five VinFast vehicles in 2019”.

    It is building a $1.5 billion factory in the northern province of Hai Phong and plans to launch a sedan and sport-utility vehicle in the third quarter of 2019, and a small car, electric car and electric bus by end-2019.

    “Our vision is to build an automobile manufacturing eco-system that will include assembly plants, local automotive suppliers and dealers, and a string of supporting industries,” said VinFast CEO Jim DeLuca.

    Vietnam’s automobile sales grew 24 percent in 2016 but fell 10 percent last year to 272,750 units, data from the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) showed. Sales fell 6 percent in the first five months of 2018.

    While GM’s sales in Vietnam have been rising since 2014, its numbers last year were only an eighth of the country’s market leader, local Truong Hai Auto Corp, and a sixth of runner up Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), VAMA data showed.

    Sales of the Chevrolet, the only vehicle GM offers in Vietnam, grew 8.5 percent to 10,576 units in 2017, lagging gains of 34.5 percent in Indonesia and 25.7 percent in Thailand.

    Lees ook:

  • Hugo Boss Men Vietnam introduces new concept

    Hugo Boss Men Vietnam introduces new concept

    Hugo Boss Vietnam has opened its first standalone store for men – Hugo – at Vincom Ba Trieu, Hanoi.

    Located at the front of the Vincom shopping centre, the 100sqm store displays basic items from the brand’s business and casual collections, along with Hugo’s Spring-Summer 2018 range.

    According to insider, Vietnam is the first market to get this new concept, with Singapore to follow in September.

  • Grab now has more rivals than ever before

    Grab now has more rivals than ever before

    From an e-hailing app, Grab has made great steps forward, providing many different services. Most recently, it started the payment service GrabPay and lending service Grab Financial.

    The consumer lending market in South East Asia is very large. As estimated by the World Bank, about 2 billion people in the world cannot access bank services, and most of them are in Asia Pacific.

    The non-cash payment market, according to Grab, is worth $500 billion in South East Asia.

    An analyst commented that Grab is wise taking a ‘roundabout’ approach to consumer lending (it conquered the transport market first before aiming for the consumer credit market).

    Consumer lending is a fertile business field for Chinese e-commerce firms. The firms offer online payment apps to users to ‘learn’ about their financial capability.

    Grab, as an app, quickly attracted users, especially investors. Just within six years, Grab became an unicorn company, i.e. an unlisted technology firm with valuation of $1 billion and higher, in South East Asia. Analysts estimate that Grab is valued at $6 billion.

    The total number of Grab downloads has reached 95 million all over South East Asia. This could serve as the launch pad for it to conquer the consumer lending market.

    The challenges 

    “GrabPay e-wallet will be used for both transport and food delivery services, two of the most used services in South East Asia,” said Jerry Lim, director of Grab Vietnam.

    However, the analyst said, by expanding its business, Grab would have to compete with more rivals who are ‘powers’ in their fields. In online payment, for example, it will have to compete not only with AirPay (Sea) and Alipay (Alibaba Group), but also with local firms such as ZaloPay (VNG) and MoMo.

    In Indonesia, Grab bought an e-commerce platform, Kudo, in April 2017. Grab believes that this is the factor which can help expand GrabPay. However, in Vietnam, Grab’s two big rivals – Sea and Alibaba — both have strong support from two popular e-commerce floors – Shopee Vietnam and Lazada Vietnam.

    Similarly, GrabFood has rivals in the food delivery sector, where Sea’s Now, which inherited the large custom from Foody, is the leader.

    Lees ook:

    Lees ook:

  • Japan leads foreign investors in Vietnam in year’s first half

    Japan leads foreign investors in Vietnam in year’s first half

    Foreign investors invested a total of over 20 billion USD in 1,366 new projects and 507 existing ones as well as in contributing capital and buying shares in domestic company in the reviewed period.

    With 5.06 billion USD, the Republic of Korea was Vietnam’s second biggest investor, followed by Singapore with 2.39 billion USD.

    During January-June, foreign investors poured their capital into 55 provinces and cities, in which Hanoi ranked first with 5.87 billion USD. The capital city was followed by Ho Chi Minh City (3.68 billion USD), and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province (1.93 billion USD).

    Manufacturing-processing industry continued to attract the most foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam in the first half of 2018, with 7.91 billion USD, accounting for 38.9 percent of the total registered capital.

    It was followed by real estate, with 5.54 billion USD, and the wholesale and retail sector with 1.5 billion USD, making up 27.3 percent and 7.4 percent of the total, respectively.

    To date, Vietnam has attracted nearly 26,000 projects with a registered capital of 326 billion USD. Disbursement is estimated at 180 billion USD.

    Foreign investment accounts for 25 percent of the country’s total investments and contributes 20 percent of GDP. Last year, the sector contributed nearly 8 billion USD to the State budget, 14.4 percent of total revenue.

    At present, 58 percent of foreign investments focus on processing and manufacturing, generating half of industrial production value.

    Lees ook:

  • Thai investors acquiring more retail market share in Vietnam

    Thai investors acquiring more retail market share in Vietnam

    In 2015, just after four years of establishment, Central Group Vietnam (CGV), acquired 49 percent of stake of Nguyen Kim. In 2016 alone, CGV acquired two big brands – Big C Vietnam and Lan Chi Mart. Through M&A deals, CGV has also brought other brands from Thailand and other countries to Vietnam.

    BJC, a subsidiary of TCC Holdings, has also been expanding in Vietnam. With MM Mega Market alone, BJC has 19 shopping centers, 3 entrepots in Da Lat (fresh vegetables and fruits), Dong Nai (fresh pork), Can Tho (seafood) and two general storehouses that provide fresh food. Besides, it also has B’s Mart with the network covering large cities.

    In 2016, after wrapping up the deal of taking over Metro Cash & Carry, BJC renamed the supermarket chain as MM Mega Market Vietnam, and since then, it has been following the business strategy with B2B (70 percent) and B2C (30 percent) Investment modes.

    Phidsanu Pongwatana, managing director of MM Mega Market, said the company is building the first pork entrepot in the north. It plans to open one to three distribution centers in the north next year, which will create 700 jobs.

    In 2017, CGV announced investment of $30 million to increase retail premises in Vietnam to 470,000 square meters.

    Meanwhile, the holding company in Thailand plans to invest $6.4 billion more in the next five years to expand the domestic and overseas markets, especially Vietnam, which is a key part in its plan to expand operation in the retail and hotel fields.

    Vietnam is considered a potential market, expected to bring to the group turnover four times higher in the next five years. It strives for revenue of $13 billion this year, an increase of 14 percent over 2017. Tos Chirathivat, CEO of Central Group, said the group would open 500 more shops in Vietnam by 2022.

    An analyst said Thai investors are now eyeing Vietnam because the market is witnessing development like Thailand did some decades ago with the rapid increase of the middle class and high economic growth rates.

    He also said the young population, increased consumption level, and the tariff cut to zero percent all have turned Vietnam into a vast market in ASEAN.

    According to the Foreign Investment Agency, the accumulative capital registered by Thai investors in Vietnam by March 2018 had reached $9.3 billion.

    With 490 projects, Thailand now ranks 10th among 126 countries and territories having FDI in Vietnam.

  • VN’s seafood exports to face difficulties following EC’s warning extension

    VN’s seafood exports to face difficulties following EC’s warning extension

    Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), noted that the seafood volume sent to the European Union (EU) will drop as both exporters and importers will suffer from more time-consuming customs clearance procedures, resulting in higher costs.

    VASEP deputy general secretary Nguyen Hoai Nam pointed out that the EC will return to Vietnam next year to check whether the country has clamped down on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.

    Meanwhile, the country’s management of fishing and origin traceability remains inadequate. Vietnam currently has nearly 110,000 fishing boats, with 33,000 of them specializing in offshore fishing. However, only some 3,000 boats have satellite-positioning devices installed.

    Although the EC’s recommendations have been included in the 2017 fisheries law, decrees and guiding documents, law enforcement needs to be strengthened at the local level.

    Answering a question by Retail News on the possibility of a red card for Vietnam’s seafood, which would entail a complete ban on Vietnamese seafood exports, if the country fails to fix the situation as requested by the EC, Hoe said the EC is not likely to issue a red card as the local seafood sector is striving to cope with its shortcomings and comply with the EC’s recommendations.

    However, it is not easy to resolve the existing problems over the short term. Thailand, for example, has had a yellow card for several years, Hoe added.

    Nguyen Thi Trang Nhung, deputy director of the Department of Science, Technology and International Cooperation under the Directorate of Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the department will hold a press conference on the problem on July 3.

    The EC on October 23, 2017 announced a yellow card for Vietnam’s seafood exports to the EU market.

    The nine recommendations given to Vietnam to act on within the six-month period from October 23 last year to April 23, include ensuring the effective adoption of revised laws; enhancing the effective execution of international regulations and management measures; increasing the traceability of seafood products; preventing sales of products from illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; and promoting cooperation with other countries.