3.4 Retailers

A retailer was the market operator operating at the last stage of the marketing channel selling to consumers. The effectiveness of the retailing network ensures that consumers’ demand for fisheries products was satisfied. The majority (97 percent) of retailers operate at family household level; a few cases of enterprises or joint-capital groups are performing retailing functions as well. Retailers form a nationwide retailing network and generate income for the market operators, supply different forms of fish products, and contribute to market stabilization.

Retailer and the retailing network

Fish retailing is carried out throughout the country, in cities, urban and rural areas and either inside or outside market places. As shown in Table 17 more than half (62 percent) of retailers operate inside local or regional markets and supply fish mostly to the local community.

TABLE 17
Locations of fish retailer operations by region

Fish retailing could be organized in various types such as supermarket, market stall, or itinerant trader. The survey showed that 89 percent of the retailers had a stable market place to operate in with the most popular being the market stall. There were 11 percent of the retailers operating as itinerant traders (Table 18).

TABLE 18
Market places for fish retailers

Fish retailing - the income generation and diversification activity

Fish retailers specialize in fish retailing. However, half of them had additional income from non-fish retailing activities mostly agri-culture but also wage earnings and rural industry. The share of such types of retailers is much higher in the north compared to the other regions of the country (Table 19). This indicates that there is also a strong relationship between fish retailing and agriculture.

TABLE 19
Additional activities undertaken by fish retailers

Even though, fish retailers may engage in many other activities, fish retailing was still the main source of income. It was found that 59 percent of the retailers obtained more than 75 percent of the total income from fish retailing (Table 20).

TABLE 20
Proportions of income from fish retailing by region

Retailer delivering various forms of fish products to consumers

In order to meet consumer demand, various forms of fish products are delivered including fresh, frozen, dried, canned and with a sauce, etc. However, it was found that 79 percent of the retailers distributed mainly fresh product. It was also found that 12 percent of the retailer mainly supplied dried product. The other forms such as frozen, canned, or readymade were reported in a few cases only.

Table 21 shows that only retailers operating in market stalls could supplied all the various forms of fish products, while itinerant traders mostly focused on fresh products. Dried and sauce or paste products are the main products supplied by supermarkets. Therefore, it was necessary to pay attention to the development of retailers operating from market stalls.

TABLE 21
Forms of products traded by different types of retailers

Fish retailer - the market supply stabilizer

Similar to the case of wholesalers, it was found that retailers did not normally keep fish products in storage. Only 27 percent of them reported that they stored fish products (Table 22). Among different types of retailers, only supermarkets kept fish products stored regularly, while itinerant trader and market stall owners did not often do so. This can be explained by the type of products traded by supermarkets, which were less perishable. It was necessary to enhance storage capacity of retailers to increase the ability to stabilize fish supply over time and to reduce changes in prices and quality.

TABLE 22
Quantity of fish products stored by retailers (kg) by type of business

3.5 Processors

Fish processors in Viet Nam differ in terms of organization and product specialization. Processors plays an important role in absorbing all kinds of materials produced by different operators in the industry, producing high value products and contributing to export development.

According to survey results (Table 23) 32 percent of the processors were running at family household level, the rest of 67.6 percent were those at enterprise level including private and State-owned or equalized enterprises. Joint-capital groups or research centres that specialize in fish processing appeared also.

TABLE 23
Organizational pattern of fish processors by region

The majority (78 percent) of processors reported that they undertake the function of fish processing only (Table 24). However, recently, processors tended to diversify their business into aquaculture or marine capture products to ensure supply of raw material for the processing facility. Several processors expand their business into provision of fishing gear or material such as ice, fuel and water for fisherfolk; in return they obtain raw materials supplied by the fisherfolk for processing. Notably, fish processors operating at household level still work in agriculture, which was perceived as the means to sustain their family’s food security.

TABLE 24
Additional activities taken by fish processors by enterprise type

As with wholesalers and retailers, the majority (80 percent) of the processors reported that they received more than 75 percent of the total income from fish processing (Table 25).

TABLE 25
Proportions of fish processors income from fish processing by types of enterprises

Fish processing - the output market for aquaculture and capture sector

Fish processors have to rely to a large extent on the producing sector for processing raw material. Eighty three percent of the total quantity of raw material had to be purchased from other market operators. The average quantity of material per processor purchased was 706.86 tonnes per year. This would be equivalent to the yearly production of 147 farmers or 235 fishing trips of fisherfolk. These illustrate the importance of the processing sector for the development of the aquaculture and capture fisheries sectors.

Processor processing for fish product differentiation

From different kinds of raw materials, fish processors produce various forms of fisheries products such as frozen, canned, ready-made. Frozen products represent the most common form produced by nearly half (47 percent) of the processors, followed by dried products and fish sauce or paste, which was produced by 28.7 percent and 19.6 percent of the processors, respectively (Table 26). Various processors also produce high value-added products such as fillets or surimi. It was also found that 30 percent of the processors produced more than one form of fish products at the same time. This shows a tendency of product diversification of processed products in the processing sector (Table 27).

TABLE 26
Forms of fish products produced by different types of processors

TABLE 27
Number of forms of fish products produced by types of business/processors

Processing for export development

As a result of fish processors, awareness of Vietnamese fisheries products are increasing in the world market. However, it was found that only 44 percent of the processors are exporting their products directly; 81 percent of the fish exporters reported that more than three fourth of their total revenues came from export earnings (Table 28). In 2001, the United States, EU, Japan and Asian countries were the main export markets for Vietnamese fish exports. Table 29 shows that the United States, Japan, Taiwan (Province of China), and EU were the four main importers in terms of physical quantity traded, however, the export turnover mainly came from Japanese and United States and Taiwanese markets. The Japanese market accounted for only 20 percent of total quantity traded, but for 49 percent of the total value.

TABLE 28
Proportions of export turnover of the total sales by processors

It was noted that 57 percent of the fish processors did not export directly. Among this non-export group, 35 processors who were operating at household level reported difficulties in accessing the world market.

TABLE 29
Major markets for fisheries products export