The Da Nang Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Kushiro Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture, are jointly implementing a project for supporting the establishment of a seafood value chain in Da Nang.

The owners of local vessels attending the training course in Kushiro City

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has already granted 60 million Yen (over 11 billion VND or 528,000 US$) in aid to the project which is now underway until 2019.

Under this large-scale project, focus is being on reducing post-harvest losses, maximising the quality of fresh seafood products, eliminating unpleasant odours at the Tho Quang fishing wharf, and enhancing the value of seafood products.

Through the project, Da Nang has the opportunity to access advanced Japanese seafood catching, its processing and preserving techniques to ensure the absolute top seafood quality. 

Furthermore, the Kushiro Chamber of Commerce and Industry is now assisting Da Nang to supply locally-caught high-value seafood for Japanese restaurants across the city, and to seek more consumers in its neighbouring localities.  Also, seafood products sourced from Viet Nam and Kushiro City will be further promoted to each other through the organisation of their fairs and related events.

Kushiro City is a famous city in Hokkaido Prefecture for its incredible seafood restaurants, along with and its rich experience in ensuring food quality, safety and hygiene management.

The establishment of the local seafood value chain helps to strengthen bilateral cooperation between Da Nang and Kushiro businesses, thereby accelerating the growth of the 2 localities in the years ahead.

Since October, experts from the Kushiro Chamber of Commerce and Industry have been sent to Da Nang to promote the use of electrochemical water disinfection at the Tho Quang fishing wharf, and to introduce effective measures to ensure environmental sanitation at other local fishing wharves and fish markets.

Japanese experts working at the Tho Quang fishing wharf

The Japanese experts recently helped the family of Mr Tran Van Muoi from Son Tra District install a cooling system on their vessel DNa-90777’s seafood storage compartment in a bid to keep their catches in good conditions. 

In a similar vein, with the help from Japanese experts, a flake ice making machine has been installed onboard the boat DNa 90945 owned by Dao Ngoc Minh Tam from Thanh Khe District.  Rapidly cooling the caught fish and preserving its peak freshness, flake ice is the best choice for use in the fisheries sector due to its quick chill properties and versatility. 

The owners of other fishing vessels and employees from the Authority of the Tho Quang fishing wharf recently attended a training course in Kushiro City on how to efficiently operate seafood preservation equipment.

In particular, early this month, the leaders of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development along with representatives from 2 local seafood processing businesses made a joint trip to

Kushiro City to learn more about seafood processing technologies and product quality management skills which have been successfully applied in this Japanese locality.

In reality, some local fishermen are still earning only small profits from their catches due to the low quality of their products. 

Most local fishermen usually store their newly-caught seafood in their frozen storage compartments filled with foam to lengthen their products’ freshness.  However, the foam layers, which have now been used for a very long time, are able to absorb water.  This causes the catches to spoil, smell bad, and become bruised during the week-long fishing trips.  Therefore, if the catches could be preserved by better methods, they will be sold at higher prices.