HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam’s fishery sector should use moreseafood by-products such as bones, heads and skin to add value to the industry,experts said at a recent forum in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Vietnam-Norway business forum on processing high-quality products formseafood byproducts was co-held by the Directorate of Fisheries under the Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development and the Norwegian Embassy in Vietnam onNovember 14.

According to Tran Dinh Luan, Deputy General Director of the Directorate ofFisheries, said that the country’s high-quality seafood was exported to manycountries, and Marine Rest Raw Materials could yield more profits and reducethe need for discharge of waste.

However, Vietnam focuses less on processing seafoodbyproducts, which have been left out for a long time, causing economic lossesand environmental pollution, he noted.

Phan Thanh Loc, Director of VietnamFood, said that such materials account for alarge portion of the input in fishery, especially shrimp, and contain a greatdeal of nutrition.

They can bring great value to firms and sustainabledevelopment to Vietnam’s fishery industry, he said.

Vietnamese firms have been using a small fraction of the"rest raw materials" as Vietnamese technologies for processing thematerials are still limited.

More research and investment into technologies, as well astrade promotion, are needed to make use of these highly profitable materials,according to Loc. 

Vietnamese factories should not view these materials aswaste, but as products and materials for processing, and preserve them morecarefully to maintain their high quality.

For the last 30 years, Vietnam and Norway, which are amongthe top 10 biggest fishery nations in the world, have been working together inthe marine industry.

Norwegian firms have been developing technologies andprocesses to use as much from the fish as possible, or what the industry calls"Marine Rest Raw Materials", to make human and animal food, cosmeticsand pharmaceutical products.

Grete Lochen, Norwegian Ambassador in Vietnam, said thatfisheries and aquaculture are contributing greatly to the global food supply,but there is a great need to enhance food security, both through sustainablefishing and aquaculture, and by a higher use of ’rest raw materials’.

At the forum, Norwegian firms in the fishery industryexpressed their interest in working with Vietnamese firms and looking for localsuppliers of high-quality fish and fish products, and buyers of theirtechnologies, such as fish feed, processing technologies, fish oil and fishmeal.-VNA