3. ROLE OF VARIOUS OPERATORS IN FISH MARKETING

Various types of market operators are involved in the fish marketing process in Viet Nam: fish producers including fisherfolk and aquaculturists, market traders namely wholesalers and retailers, processors and exporters, fish consumers including the institutional consumers, and also the public sector. The following sections examine the role of each category in fish marketing.

3.1 Fisherfolk

Inland fisherfolk

Viet Nam has a large area of freshwater bodies (lakes, reservoirs and rivers). Traditionally, the freshwater bodies provided a livelihood for a large portion of villagers who relied on freshwater fishing. Recently fishing in freshwater bodies has decreased because of lower productivity caused by over fishing and pollution of the water environment. However, freshwater bodies still play a significant role in supplying fish to specific regions of Viet Nam such as the central Highlands, some northern mountainous are as along the Red River system and several reservoirs. Most of the species caught from the freshwater bodies are those preferred by consumers, including catfish, snakehead, common carp, minor carp and major carps.

During recent years the management practices of freshwater fishing have changed. In most freshwater bodies, free fishing is no longer permitted. The user right of the water bodies is gradually assigned to different individuals or organizations. Freshwater fishing activities are also changing to freshwater aquaculture or cage culture. In the province of Dac Lak in the central Highlands, most of the reservoirs have been assigned to state-owned enterprises as long-term leases. These enterprises are responsible for making use of the water bodies. In the province of An Giang in the south, in most rivers and canals free fishing is prohibited so as to encourage and protect cage culture along the water bodies.

In general, freshwater fisherfolk operate at household level. They often use family labour and hired labour is necessary for their business. The fishing trip often lasts no longer than a day. They go fishing for about 22 days per month. The catch per day ranges from several to a hundred kilograms. The marketing activity is very simple. Fifty-seven percent of the fisherfolk sold their products to local wholesalers, a few sold to local retailers. However, nearly half (48 percent) of the fisherfolk often acted as retailers, selling fish directly to final consumers in local markets.

Marine fisherfolk

The fishing sector in Viet Nam has a history of centuries of operations with fish being transported inland from landing places along the coast of Viet Nam. The respondents, i.e., the fishing informants, have spent 18 years on average in capture fisheries (Table 1). The proportion of the informants with more than 10 years of experience was 71 percent (Table 2). This long experience ensures good awareness of the business regarding various aspects including fishing techniques and marketing.

TABLE 1
Fisherfolk working experience (years)

TABLE 2
Classifications of fisherfolk experience by region

In general, the fishers specialize in marine capture fisheries. In 86 percent of the fisherfolk, capture fisheries was the main source of income, constituting more than 75 percent of the total income of fishing households (Table 3). The study also showed that 42 percent of the fisherfolk surveyed did not engage in any activity other than catching fish. The remaining proportions of the fisherfolk engage in various economic activities such as small trading, aquaculture, agriculture or boat repairing services. Small trading was the most preferable additional activity carried out (Table 4). This is common in many fisherfolk households as women are often left at home during fishing trips and choose small trading activities as additional occupation.

The degree of specialization in capture fisheries was higher in the north than in the other regions. The survey shows that 68 percent of fisherfolk did not have any other activity. The strong specialization is confirmed by the fact that 98 percent of the fisherfolk have more than 75 percent of the total income from fisheries capture (Table 3).

TABLE 3
Contribution of marine fishing to fisherfolk income by region

TABLE 4
Occupational activities of fisherfolk by region

Among the fisherfolk surveyed most (87 percent) were organized at household level (Table 5). The remaining fisherfolk were organized either in enterprises (private and state-owned), or joint-capital groups or cooperatives. Fishing cooperatives are formed and operate according to the Law of Cooperatives. When organized in cooperatives, fisherfolk may make higher investment, and have higher capability of offshore fishing and marketing. Fishing cooperatives may consist of 12 to 100 members. Unlike the cooperative, the joint capital group is normally the aggregation of several fishing households ranging from 2 to 12 households. The group has less favourable status in compassion with the fishing cooperatives especially in credit accessibility.

TABLE 5
Organizational patterns of fisherfolk by region

Since 2001, under the National Target Programme on offshore Fishing Development, the fleet of offshore fishing boats is increasing. The definition of inshore and offshore fishing is defined by water depth of the sea. Fishing beyond 30 m deep (50 m deep for the central region) is defined as offshore fishing (Table 6). In this study, 67 percent of the fisherfolk fished offshore. Consequently, it takes more than 17 hours on average for a boat to reach the fishing grounds and normally, a fishing trip lasts for 14.5 days (Table 7). Therefore it takes around ten days for the caught fish to be landed and the quality of fish may deteriorate unless effective preservation methods are available on board the vessel.

In general, after landing, the catch was sold directly to fish traders. However, 25 percent of the fisherfolk reported that they took a small proportion of the catch (from 5 to 10 percent) for other purposes such as home consumption, gifts, or for paying salary to their hired labourers as in-kind payment. Notably, 44 percent of the fisherfolk reported that they processed fish before selling. It was also reported that 80 percent of the fisherfolk could keep several species alive to sell at much higher price compared with the same species sold in the form of fresh fish. The main species that are often kept alive are grouper, mackerel, swimming crab and lobster. The proportion of live products, however, was often below 20 percent of the total catch per trip (Table 8).

TABLE 6
Locations of fishing by fisherfolk by region

TABLE 7
Time spent fishing at sea by region

TABLE 8
Proportions of living products landed per trip by fisherfolk by region

3.2 Fish farmers

Aquaculture plays an important role in the rural economy where a large proportion of rural villagers live on the primary sector. Traditionally, aquaculture was not seen as an economic sector, as it mostly provided fish for household consumption and subsistence. Recently aquaculture has become a profitable occupation that strongly contributes to the income of rural families. From the survey, it was found that in almost half (49 percent) of the fish farmers 75 percent of their total income came from aquaculture (Table 9).

TABLE 9
Proportion of fish farmer’s income from fish farming by region

It is convenient to divide the aquaculture sector in Viet Nam into two types of culture: traditional aquaculture in the freshwater environment, and modern, intensive aquaculture mainly in brackish or marine waters. Among 311 fish farmers surveyed, 43 percent of them were brackish or marine fish farmers (Table 10). The distribution of the marine farmers was mostly in the central region and the southern Viet Nam. This was consistent with the current situation of aquaculture in the regions, where the north has a less important role with 61 percent of the farmers undertaking improved extensive aquaculture (this figure was much lower in the other regions).

TABLE 10
Classifications of aquaculturists by types of culture environment by region

Findings showed that aquaculture was new to fish farmers in the country. Compared with those working in marine capture, the proportion of farmers that had more than ten years of experience was much lower at only 15 percent. Basically, fish farmers are the newcomers, in which 35 percent had less than 3 years of experience. The large number of the newcomers to the industry has caused various problems as experienced shrimp farmers criticized and complained; especially problems related to farming techniques, disease control and prevention and market competition.

Similar to the case of fisherfolk, most fish farmers (94 percent) were operating at household level (Table 11). Only a few farmers were operating in private or state-owned enterprises. Notably, it was found that 5 percent of the fish farmers were operating in the form of joint-capital groups from 2 to 10 shareholders. In this way fish farmers could accumulate resources and invest in the business for quick expansion.

TABLE 11
Organizational patterns of aquaculturists by region

The aquaculture sector is expanding dramatically and supplies various kinds of species and products for domestic and overseas consumption. For the domestic market, in addition to carp, major carps, snakehead and tilapia, various species of high economic value have been introduced, such as pomfret, hybrid catfish and tilapias. The growth of aquaculture production is responding to the increasing demand for domestic fish consumption. The development of the aquaculture sector is marked by a rapid expansion of brackish and marine aquaculture in coastal regions. High economic value products, such as shrimps, lobster; grouper and crab come from marine culture. The export value of these products contributes strongly to the total foreign exchange earning of Viet Nam.

The survey shows that the contribution of aquaculture products to the industry was still limited (Table 12). More than half of the processors (55 percent) did not use aquaculture products as raw materials for their production. They relied very much on products from marine capture fisheries. Nevertheless, aquaculture products still played an important role in inland areas where access to marine species and products is limited. Large processors consumed more aquaculture products than the others; only 15.8 percent of the establishments did not use aquaculture products.

TABLE 12
Proportion of aquaculture products traded by marketing agents

3.3 Wholesalers

Wholesalers in particular and middlepersons in general play an important role in fish marketing, moving fish from the producer, i.e. the fish farmer or fisherfolk to the final stages of the marketing channel. Wholesalers not only directly supply fish to consumers, but also balance demand and supply of fish among different regions.

According to the survey, a majority (87 percent) of wholesalers operate at family household level. The rest may be organized either in the form of enterprises or groups or cooperatives. Significantly, 11 percent of the wholesalers were private enterprises. This shows the increasing role of the private sector in fish marketing.

Wholesalers in fish marketing

A wholesaler may operate at various spatial levels and function differently at each level. There are four main types of wholesalers: first wholesaler, intermediate wholesaler, last-stage wholesaler and multifunctional wholesaler. The first wholesaler is the one that has the additional functions of collection and brokerage. The intermediate wholesaler operates with pure wholesaling function, whose partners are mainly the other types of wholesaler and fish processors. The last-stage wholesaler specializes in supplying fish to retailers and institutional consumers. The multifunctional wholesaler may take various marketing functions at the same time and may act as collector, broker, wholesaler and retailer simultaneously. Normally, the multifunctional wholesaler purchases fish directly from the primary producer and also distributes directly to retailer, institutional consumer and household consumer.

The operations of the four main types of wholesalers were investigated in the survey. For the country as a whole, the proportion of each type of wholesaler was similar. However, in the northern region 40 and 36 percent of wholesalers were multifunctional and last-stage wholesalers, respectively (Table 13). In central Viet Nam and southern region, first and intermediate wholesaler operations were more frequent.

TABLE 13
Classifications of wholesalers (WH) by marketing function by region

Wholesaling as income generation and diversification

In general, fish wholesalers specialize in the fish wholesaling function. However, around half (50 percent) of them may engage in many other types of occupation in order to support their business or help to stabilize their family income and maybe to make full use of their labour force apart from fish wholesaling. The major types of additional occupations were fishing, aquaculture, fish processing, provision of fisheries input or services, agriculture, and other forms of small trading (Table 14).

TABLE 14
Additional activities taken by wholesalers (WH)

Different types of wholesaler responded differently to additional occupations. Table 14 shows that 75 percent of the multifunctional wholesaler engaged in additional occupations, of which agriculture being a major one. In the north a large portion of wholesalers reported that they came from the agriculture sector.

Fish wholesaling became a main occupation for many family households in the country as it contributed substantially to the total household income. It was found that 71 percent of the wholesalers got more than 75 percent of total income from fish wholesaling. However, the significance of income generation from fish wholesaling is less strong in the case of the multifunctional wholesalers where more than half (55 percent) of the operators had obtained less than 75 percent of their total income from fish wholesaling (Table 15).

TABLE 15
Proportion of income derived by the various types of fish wholesalers

Wholesaler as the market supply stabilizer

As fisheries production is seasonal, the supply may fluctuate over time. The movement of fisheries products from producers through different intermediaries to consumers is facilitated mostly by the wholesalers. They may keep a portion of the traded quantity and make full use of their storage capacity, purchasing a certain amount of fish products when the market price was low and selling it at a different time at higher market prices. In this way wholesalers could help to balance market supplies and prices that could benefit both the producer and the consumer.

However, only 31 percent of the wholesalers, especially the last and the intermediate wholesalers, keep fish products in storage. This does not suggest a strong capability of market stabilization by fish wholesalers.

TABLE 16
Types of organizations involved in the different categories of wholesalers (WH)

Wholesaler in fish product differentiation

In addition to the marketing of fish products, wholesalers may contribute to the enhancement of economic and nutritional value of fisheries products by adding value to products. From the survey, it was reported that 34 percent of the wholesalers did not engage in product differentiation. Other wholesalers may be involved in drying, smoking, skinning, heading, filleting, gutting and making sauce or pastes and even some ready to cook or eat food, as well as adding ice or salt to fish.