Nichirei to shift Japan seafood production to Vietnam

Nichirei Fresh, a fresh food processing subsidiary of Japanese food giant Nichirei, plans to transfer all salmon production in Japan to its Vietnamese plant.

Kenya Okushi, Nichirei Fresh president, was quoted by intrafish.com Friday as saying his company would close a value-added salmon processing facility in the Fukushima region next March and shift production to Vietnam.

Intrafish, part of NHST Media, a leading business news provider in Norway, said the company cited “safety and production issues” as the reason for the shift. Timelines for the move are unknown.

The factory, Maruichi Fresh, has been one of Nichirei's primary seafood processing facilities for several years and has considerably aged.

In Vietnam, Tokyo-based Nichirei Fresh opened its seafood processing factory Trans Pacific Seafood Co. in October 2018 as a joint venture between the firm and Wang Hai Seafood Company, a Vietnamese company headquartered in the south-central coastal town of Phan Thiet.

Covering more than 20,000 square meters in Phan Thiet Industrial Park, the $6.5 million plant has five processing lines employing about 500 workers. Its current capacity is 1,500 tons of processed products per year, according to the plant’s website.

Vietnam’s seafood exports rose 38% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2022 to $8.53 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.