Coastal villages in Vietnam have recently developed a specific business by offering a link between fishing ships offshore and seafood markets on the mainland. They carry commodities necessary to the fishing grounds and take sea products in return.

Hai Binh Commune in the northern province of Thanh Hoa’s Tinh Gia District has emerged as a prominent example of doing business at sea without going fishing.

Their most important work tools are the ships - each with a loading capacity of 50-100 tons, comparatively named ‘daughter ships’ while the bigger ships on the fishing grounds are called ‘mother ships’.

A link at sea

On a weekend day early this month, after 16 hours of heading offshore, the 50-ton ‘daughter ship’ of Phan Thi crossed over 100 nautical miles, or 160 kilometers, and he began contacting ‘mothers’ via walkie-talkie to exchange goods.

At the co-ordinates of the appointment, the ‘daughter’ passed necessities like rice, vegetables and beer to the ‘mother’ and took fish and other sea products in return.

“We regularly set contacts before heading offshore when ‘mothers’ are full of fish. After buying fish from this mother, I will meet up with others till my ship is full of its 50 ton load and head back to the mainland,” Thi said loudly, shouting against the noisy sea wind.

On the way back to shore, the crew on the ‘daughter ship’ began categorizing fish into bags and loading them in the ship’s frozen cargo hold.

In the central province of Quang Ngai, on another 80-ton ‘daughter ship,’ worth VND2.4 billion (US$115,400), owner Nguyen Thanh Hoang, 40, entered digits into his palm calculator to pay the owner of a mother ship.

“Here I just get fresh money [which refers to small change in preparation for unplanned transactions at sea]. Returning to the mainland, the ‘daughter’ will pay the remaining sum into my bank account, which is managed by my wife,” Den, the mother ship’s owner, said.

“When our account is full, she will call me to come home,” Den added smiling. ‘Full’ means a certain sum of money for each fishing trip offshore as Den and his wife set up a plan to earn a profit of VND1 billion ($48,000) a year on average.

Exchanging cargo of necessary commodities and fish between a 'mother ship' and a 'daughter ship' on East Sea (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Hoang said that a mother ship can bring in three hauls of fish a night and in favored season a good haul may amount to ten tons of fish. In the past, fishing ships have had to return to the mainland every ten days to buy fuel, fishing tools and food. Now, thanks to daughter ships like Hoang’s, a ‘mother’ can float offshore for months.

Hoang said he earns a net profit of VND20 million ($960) from each offshore trip lasting from three days to a week.

“The sum of 20 million dong is the net profit after deducting 50 million dong the fuel cost and the crew’s salary. I have to go on four or five trips like that a month to maintain my business,” Hoang admitted.

Setting anchor at port, the fish is purchased by other dealers and transported by a team of refrigerated trucks that distribute to markets and seafood processing factories.

Having developed the team of daughter ships since 2001, Hai Binh now has altogether 65 ships working as ‘daughters’ at sea.

“The logistics of the fishing service in Hai Binh is successful and the model has spread to other coastal villages. It helps people escape poverty,” said Nguyen Duc Quyen, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee of Thanh Hoa.

“The service has brought positive change to the community as it creates other services in the locality, including ship repair, fishing tool production, ice making and the sales of machines’ spare parts,” he added.

Feeling pleased with the business in the region, an elderly local fisherman Nguyen Ben remarked, “People in some localities opt to stop fishing to become emigrant workers abroad, but here no one cares for it. Locals here earn their living thanks to the sea and it also helps protect our maritime securities.”

A local named Nguyen Van Long, 50, is considered one of the pioneers in Hai Binh to ‘give birth’ to the local logistics service at sea. Once, seeing many fishing ships waiting for two or three days to buy ice before heading offshore, he and a friend established an ice producing firm, which works at the capacity of 50 tons a day.

Then, he began buying ships to distribute ice and other necessities to fishing ships offshore and transport fish home. The profitable service has been maintained till now.

Fish and shrimp caught from a haul of fish (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Services available on the mainland to distribute sea products to markets and processing firms (Photo: Tuoi Tre)