In Quang Nam, Vice Chairman Ho Quang Buu and representatives of related departments attended.
According to fisheries experts, 2020 is a difficult year for all industries, in which the seafood industry is also affected. The COVID-19 epidemic continued to be complicated, the distribution channels of seafood products were broken and interrupted in many export markets; seafood prices fell; warning that the "yellow card" of the European Commission has not been removed, continues to adversely affect seafood export activities... However, in 2020, aquaculture production and exploitation activities will still maintain an increase. The export turnover reached 8.6 billion USD, of which exploited seafood reached more than 3.4 billion USD.
Regarding to the limitations of the seafood industry, the delegates said: Currently, fisheries resources are declining, and the fishing force is still high in time. Over the past few years, the production efficiency of the fishing industry has decreased, while the application of scientific and technical advances to improve the value of fishery products has not been much.
In addition, labor shortage in fishing has been common in many localities. The cultural level of the labor force at sea is still low compared to the common level of society today, affecting the application of modern exploitation and preservation technologies to production. In particular, the fishing port infrastructure is still lacking or degraded. The creek into the port is sedimented but has not been dredged in time, making it difficult and unsafe for ships to enter, load and unload goods, etc.
To improve the efficiency of fishing, processing and consumption of aquatic products in the coming time, the delegates proposed many recommendations such as: Accelerating the application of science and technology in breeding, aquaculture and post-harvest storage. Besides, it is necessary to restructure seafood processing and exporting enterprises according to the circular economy model, following the value chain.
At the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that fisheries were identified as a pillar of growth for the agricultural sector, but investment was still inadequate in infrastructure such as fishing ports, ships, and planning. In order to achieve the goals of the Fisheries Development Strategy to 2030 and the vision to 2045, it is necessary to synchronously implement all three pillars including: Exploitation, conservation and farming. However, in order to ensure sustainable development of the fisheries sector, one of the most important tasks is to focus on investing in infrastructure methodically. .
