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Integration & Supply Chain
Gen 2 takes over Vietnam’s Quoc Viet with sustainability in mind At the sidelines of Vietfish 2019, President Ngo Quoc Tuan elaborated on challenges ahead to bring the company up to the next level. By Zuridah Merican
Quoc Viet’s farm is only 3 km or 15 minutes away from its processing plant
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amily-owned and operated, Quoc Viet is one of the pioneers in commercial shrimp farming in Vietnam. Ngo Van Nga started the company in 1996, after many years in shrimp farming and processing. Today, the company is a leading exporter of shrimp products; both vannamei and monodon shrimp in various forms, ranging from raw head-on shell-on, cooked headless, to nobashi tail blanched shrimp and peeled tail-on breaded shrimp. Raw materials come from its own farms in Ca Mau province in the Mekong Delta, south Vietnam, supplemented by other farmer ponds, also in Ca Mau. Today, Quoc Viet is among the largest integrated shrimp farming businesses, with processing and farms. Coming soon is a hatchery business. Ngo has now passed the running of the company to his three sons, Ngo Quoc Viet, Ngo Quoc Tuan and Ngo Quoc Kiet and daughters, Ngo Thuy Kieu, Ngo Thuy Huyen and Ngo Thuy Thi. Some 13 years ago, fresh from college in 2006, Tuan took over the reins of his father’s shrimp farming business. Now its president, Tuan said, “Since the 1980s, my father had a basic yet efficient farming model. We had long term relationships with many farmers we were working with. This model also worked well for us as well
Ngo Quoc Tuan with a sister, Ngo Thuy Huyen, Commercial Director, Quoc Viet with some awards at their booth during Vietfish 2019.
November/December 2019 AQUA Culture Asia Pacific
as for farmers all over Vietnam and in the rest of Asia. More than 10 years ago, this changed as the markets, consumers, retailers, distributors and NGOs started to pay more attention to the sustainability of aquaculture, in general and in shrimp, the supply chain and processing.” Among Tuan’s driving force for the business, is the focus towards a sustainable production system, to meet the demands of buyers. Quoc Viet has always played a leading role in Vietnam’s shrimp farming sector. It was a platinum sponsor at the annual Vietfish International, a gathering of seafood producers, held this year from August 29-31 in Ho Chi Minh City. Quoc Viet is also a leading supporter of the Seafood Task Force (STF) which together with IDH, sponsored a conference to garner producers to join the former in reaching for a more sustainable shrimp farming industry in Vietnam. In this interview with AAP, Tuan elaborated on his aspirations to bring Quoc Viet up to the next level of sustainability and on the challenges ahead.