Toan Dao

Contributing Editor reporting from Hanoi, Vietnam

Toan Dao has written about Vietnam’s business community, with a focus on energy and agriculture, for a number of Vietnamese and international outlets for more than 10 years. As a contributing editor for SeafoodSource in Southeast Asia, he also covers other major seafood producers in the region including Indonesia and Thailand.


Author Archive

Published on
January 3, 2023

Singapore-based Barramundi Group announced 27 December, 2022, it has agreed to a strategic partnership with Wild Ocean Australia on its Australia business.

Following the partnership with Wild Ocean, Barramundi Group will continue to develop the “Kimberley Ocean Barramundi Project,” which includes MPA’s 13 seawater sites that will be able to produce 30,000 metric tons (MT) per year of barramundi, the company

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Published on
January 3, 2023

Vietnam is making a big push to rid itself of the European Union’s yellow card, a trade warning first issued in October 2017 after the European Commission decided the Southeast Asian nation had not done enough to counter illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

The E.U. is now in the process of conducting a review of Vietnam’s fisheries-related policies to determine whether to rescind the yellow card and resume normal

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Published on
December 21, 2022

The Meloy Fund, a U.S.-based impact investment fund, announced 6 December, 2022 it has invested in JAM Seafoods, a seafood-processing company promoting sustainable fisheries in the Philippines.

Meloy Fund was founded in 2016 to conduct impact investment supporting sustainable coastal fisheries in Indonesia and the Philippines. 

The fund said its latest investment, the value of which has not been revealed, will stimulate

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Published on
December 21, 2022

Chennai, India-based aquaculture technology platform Aquaconnect has raised USD 15 million (EUR 14 million) in a Series A funding round to fuel its business expansion.

The round was led by India’s Lok Capital and participated in by Louis Dreyfus Company Ventures, Suneight Investment, and existing investors such as Omnivore, Rebright Partners, Flourish Ventures, HATCH, and others.

The funds will be allocated towards improving

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Published on
December 20, 2022

Vietnam has surpassed USD 10 billion (EUR 9.4 billion) in seafood exports thus far in 2022, reaching an all-time high for the country, thanks to a post-Covid recovery in global demand.

But high global inflation and an uncertain Chinese market have the country’s seafood executives anxious about a possible downturn.

Vietnam took in USD 10.17 billion (EUR 9.57 billion) from its seafood exports between January and November 2022, a 27.4 percent

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Published on
December 16, 2022

Thai Union’s subsidiary i-Tail Corporation (ITC) has set up new companies in China and the Netherlands to oversee sales of the company’s pet food and pet-related products in the two markets.

The i-Tail (Shanghai) Co. will develop its private labels to expand sales of pet food and pet-related products in China and devleop new opportunities to invest in the petcare business in the country, according to a Thai Union press release.

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Published on
December 15, 2022

Kerala, India-based shrimp farmer, processor, and exporter King Infra Ventures is expanding into India's retail consumer market as part of its goal of becoming a “farm-to-fork” company.

The launch of its seafood retail business will center on its "King Fresh" range of seafood products, including cleaned, cut, packed, and chilled seafood packed in 250- and 500-gram tray packets. The King Infra product range

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Published on
December 14, 2022

Thai Union has topped the food industry rankings on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI), the company announced 13 December.

The seafood giant has been on the DJSI, a set of indices assessing the sustainability performance of thousands of publicly traded companies, for nine years in a row. This year, Thai Union ranked first in the Food Products Industry Index of the DJSI, which it was also granted back in 2018 and 2019.

The company

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Published on
December 9, 2022

Thai Union will invest THB 6 billion (USD 172.4 million, EUR 163.3 million) to expand its operations in 2023, despite global headwinds including high inflation and rising interest rates.

Of that total, THB 1 billion (USD 28.7 million, EUR 27.2 million) will be used to finish and optimize two new factories that will produce protein hydrolysate and collagen peptide in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. Thai Union also plans to open a cold storage facility

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Published on
December 9, 2022

Vietnam's November pangasius exports fell to the lowest level thus far in 2022, according to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

In November, Vietnam shipped less than USD 8 million (EUR 7.6 million) worth of pangasius. Though the monthly growth was the lowest so far this year, it is still up 12 percent from a year ago. 

Sales had been strong in the ... 

Photo courtesy of Dzung

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