{"id":1545,"date":"2026-09-19T15:16:53","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T06:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/industry_news\/camau-cp-aquafeed\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T06:16:53","slug":"camau-cp-aquafeed","status":"publish","type":"industry_news","link":"https:\/\/vietnam-agri.com\/en\/industry_news\/camau-cp-aquafeed\/","title":{"rendered":"CP's feed plant now running in Ca Mau: the upstream seen in Vietnamese shrimp sourcing"},"content":{"rendered":"

CP Vietnam, the Vietnamese arm of the major Thai conglomerate CP Group, has started up a new aquafeed plant in Ca Mau province, the heartland of shrimp farming. Completed on August 7, 2026, the plant has a design capacity of 124,800 tonnes a year and becomes the group's fourth aquafeed base in the country. The significance of shrimp-feed production coming close to a leading producing area is not small. Japan is a major buyer of Vietnamese shrimp, and where the feed that is the raw material is made bears not only on price but also on quality and on how easy the history is to trace. We want to confirm the meaning of more feed within an origin from the standpoint of Japanese procurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fourth feed mill in Ca Mau's Khanh An Industrial Park<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The new plant is located in Ca Mau province's Khanh An Industrial Park and occupies about 18 hectares. Centered on shrimp feed, it produces CP's brands such as Blanca, Hi-Po, and Hi-Gro. It is CP Vietnam's fourth aquafeed plant in the country, and with it the group's domestic aquafeed capacity has reached a scale exceeding 650,000 tonnes a year, industry media report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total investment is put at 1.725 trillion dong (about US$66.2 million, about 10 billion yen). Attending the completion ceremony were Le Van Su, vice chairman of the Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee, and executives of CP Vietnam's aquaculture division. Ca Mau sits at the southernmost tip of the Mekong Delta and holds a major farming belt for black tiger and vannamei. By placing feed at that center, the aim is to shorten delivery distances to dealers and farmers and to raise the responsiveness of supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changes when feed comes closer to the producing area<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Feed accounts for a large part of the production cost of shrimp farming. If a plant is within the farming belt, transport costs and delivery lead times are easier to hold down, and responding to demand swings becomes easier too. The high cost of feed has been seen as a weak point in the competitiveness of Vietnamese shrimp. How far increased production within the origin improves that depends on raw-material inbound costs and plant utilization, but it is a step toward rethinking the cost structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are implications for quality control as well. In shrimp imports, many buyers want to confirm even the feed formulation and usage history to avoid antibiotic residues and quality variability. CP is known as an integrated operator handling feed, farming, and processing, and is in a position to readily grasp where and how its feed is made in-house. This plant alone does not complete a consistent supply network, but feed being made close to the producing area is itself one factor that can improve visibility into the supply network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CP Ca Mau plant in figures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Item<\/th>Details<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Start-up date<\/td>August 7, 2026<\/td><\/tr>
Location<\/td>Khanh An Industrial Park, Ca Mau province<\/td><\/tr>
Site area<\/td>About 18 ha<\/td><\/tr>
Annual capacity<\/td>124,800 tonnes<\/td><\/tr>
Total investment<\/td>1.725 trillion dong (about US$66.2 million \/ about 10 billion yen)<\/td><\/tr>
Main product<\/td>Shrimp feed (Blanca\/Hi-Po\/Hi-Gro and others)<\/td><\/tr>
Positioning<\/td>CP Vietnam's fourth in the country; toward a domestic total exceeding 650,000 tonnes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>
Source: Tap chi Thuy san VN and various industry media (August\u2013September 2026). Yen conversions calculated at US$1 \u2248 150 yen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three points on which assessments diverge<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This start-up can be assessed from three angles. One is the increase in feed production in the Mekong Delta itself. As supply within the origin advances, farmers find it easier to gain stability in both obtaining feed and its price. The second is the two-sidedness of advancing integration by a major player. Efficiency and ease of tracing history rise, while the question of how small and midsize feed makers and independent farmers hold their position remains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third is cost competitiveness with an eye on export markets. Vietnamese shrimp is exposed to US tariffs and to price competition with other origins, and improving feed costs can lift exports as a whole. How this upstream move in feed ripples through to downstream negotiating power in processing and export will become visible from future operating results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Implications for Japanese shrimp procurement managers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Japanese seafood buyers, even if this plant is not a direct trading partner, it is a clue for reading the supply constitution of an origin. When sourcing shrimp, what you want to confirm is not only the certification of the processing plant but also the origin and usage history of the feed behind it. An origin with a supply network that can be traced consistently from feed through processing finds it easier to hold down quality variability and to trace problems when they occur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, there is value in keeping an origin where feed, farming, and processing are geographically clustered, as in Ca Mau, among your sourcing candidates. In particular, when certified farming such as ASC is combined with feed that can be traced down to raw materials and the manufacturing process, it is easier to meet the traceability that Japanese retailers and restaurants demand. Having a feed plant within the origin is one of the conditions that makes that tracing easier to advance. Relatedly, the move in which a Ca Mau shrimp-farming cooperative obtained ASC certification<\/a> and the 721 ha of ASC black tiger in Dam Doi<\/a> show that a supply network is coming together within the same origin region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ripple effects on the market<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Strengthening feed capacity is a move that firms up the upstream of Vietnam's shrimp export strategy. As the US market wavers on tariffs, Vietnam is diversifying toward markets such as South Korea, Australia, and Japan. The reshuffling of shrimp exports among the five main markets<\/a> As that proceeds, supply of feed within the origin\u2014which underpins cost competitiveness\u2014can become a factor that widens the room for price negotiation. Japanese buyers will want to watch the time frame over which such upstream build-out takes effect on the stability of volume and price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In sum: bring the origin of feed into the evaluation axis of procurement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The start-up of the CP Ca Mau plant is a signal that the supply network for Vietnamese shrimp has advanced one step toward being \"completed within the origin.\" The next thing Japanese procurement managers can do is to line up the feed origin, farming certification, and processing capacity of candidate shrimp origins on a single sheet and compare them. Rather than comparing price lists alone, adding the consistency from feed through processing to the evaluation axis raises the precision with which you choose partners for stable sourcing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n