Perfecting the supply chain of goods to the EU market - An inevitable direction

The EU is one of the four largest and most demanding markets for Vietnamese seafood. In addition to current regulations, the EU has recently issued additional regulations on the assessment of the supply chain of goods entering this market. This is a challenge but is also considered an opportunity for seafood in general and the shrimp industry in particular to rise up, break through, and regain the second position if these regulations are promptly and comprehensively met.

Báo Cần Thơ•07/12/2025

Perfecting the shrimp supply chain is an inevitable direction to increase the market share of Vietnamese shrimp in the EU.

People, environment and pets

As one of the major shrimp exporters to the EU market, Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that it is understandable that European countries increasingly attach importance to environmental and labor standards. Because these are also the two main areas in the production process of each product. However, the difficulty for businesses when implementing this standard is that they force all activities related to employees to be similar to European standards. For example, the number of working hours per day, per week; welfare regime, rest for pregnant female employees; no use of child labor... are all in accordance with European regulations...

Mr. Luc added specifically: “For example, at a shrimp farm, first of all, the housing for workers must be sturdy and private to prevent outside animals from entering, but must be airy with full minimum amenities... The dining room must also have standards for cooking, eating, toilets, and proper hand washing areas...”.

Not only caring for people, according to Mr. Luc, the EU also has quite high regulations on animal welfare. Specifically, parent shrimp must not have their eyes cut during the breeding process, shrimp must be released in ponds at a permissible rate to limit shrimp stress, there must be cameras in the pond to monitor the progress of the shrimp, there must be probes to control the water to promptly handle the situation so that it is always in the most stable state... "In short, if all regulations on animal welfare are fully implemented, only large farms can meet the requirements in the farming stage, and small farms will find it very difficult to achieve. All of the above regulations need a roadmap, but this roadmap is quite short and the shrimp industry must complete it" - Mr. Luc concluded.

Regarding environmental standards, the Prime Minister committed in COP21 (21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) to reduce emissions by 35% by 2035 and complete neutrality by 2050. Therefore, from now on, businesses must gradually get used to awareness and enforcement of emission control, limitation and neutralization . Businesses must know which areas emit, proceed to quantify (through support from consulting organizations), then find emission mechanisms to have solutions to limit without affecting their operations (such as replacing new equipment, changing to new materials with less emission features, etc.). The neutralization solution that our businesses are implementing is to use renewable energy, pay attention to afforestation activities, use new foods to reduce emissions, and pay attention to proper waste treatment. The EU also requires attention to the circular economy to save resources; In particular, packaging for preserving goods for the EU must move towards having at least 30% from renewable materials... Our businesses have committed to a roadmap, but it is certainly difficult to prolong.

Ensuring transparency

Regarding the issue of traceability, there are two meanings: first, to ensure the transparency and safety of products supplied to the EU market; second, to comply with FTA regulations, to avoid the situation where businesses import goods of other origins and label them as Vietnamese. Previously, businesses implementing ASC only needed to declare which shrimp pond this was, which pond number... 2, 3 years later they would come to check the records. But now, any pond that declares to implement ASC will have the ASC department in Vietnam come to inspect it right away. In addition, they also check the input materials used to see if they comply with ASC regulations.

It can be said that traceability is an extremely difficult issue for farms and businesses today. Because traceability is associated with checking the truth of the production process from raw materials to exported products to see if they are consistent with strict regulations from the EU. This is an issue that at first glance seems simple but is extremely difficult in the actual situation of farming in Vietnam. Especially small businesses and households find it very difficult to gain the absolute trust of the EU like large businesses and farms. VASEP has also worked with the EU on the use of shrimp farming inputs, especially veterinary drugs, to find a common voice on the issue of residues of banned substances in farming and processing.

According to businesses, in the future, farmed shrimp exported to the EU must meet standards (such as ASC) to attract consumers. Meanwhile, the rate of farmed shrimp in Vietnam meeting ASC standards is still very modest. This is a major limitation for Vietnamese shrimp to penetrate high-end distribution systems.

Mr. Ho Quoc Luc added: “Due to the low rate of ASC-certified shrimp, combined with high costs, despite the advantages of deep processing and EVFTA, Vietnam's shrimp market share in the EU has only hovered around 2nd or 3rd place for many years. Meanwhile, Ecuadorian farmed shrimp has 30-40% of this standard, combined with low costs, so despite entering the EU market later, Ecuadorian shrimp currently has a market share that "no one dares to dream of" in the EU. This is a bottleneck that all participants in the Vietnamese shrimp value chain should pay attention to and find ways to resolve."

Difficult but great opportunity

According to businesses, fully meeting the standards of the European market supply chain in the current context is a big challenge for export businesses. However, businesses also admit that if implemented correctly and sufficiently, the opportunities for businesses will be huge.

Mr. Ho Quoc Luc said: “Currently, any enterprise that fully meets the standards in the EU supply chain almost does not need to find customers. EU customers will come to the enterprise to place orders. Therefore, enterprises should not “cut short and bite long” to avoid errors in declaring origin, because information technology now allows for extremely sophisticated control capabilities.

Sharing more about solutions to implement standards in the European market supply chain, businesses all said that with the current status of aquaculture, in general and shrimp farming in particular, still small and fragmented, it is very difficult to achieve these standards. Therefore, the issue of reorganizing production in the direction of cooperation associated with value chain linkage as well as land accumulation policy is extremely important for the shrimp industry in the coming time. It can be said that perfecting the shrimp supply chain is an inevitable step, especially in the context of increasing difficulties and risks, transparency and perfecting the supply chain will be a very effective persuasion to help the shrimp industry not only maintain but also increase its reputation and market share in the EU market.

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