Japanese oysters are now successfully farmed in Vietnam. This is the result of the Vietnam – Japan relationship, in which Bavabi is the main unit responsible for research on farming, production and packaging processes. Currently, Japanese milk oysters have been and are being farmed in planned areas in the heritage sea area of Ha Long Bay.
Overview of Japanese oyster production processes at Bavabi
Overview, to have Japanese milk oysters and oyster intestines reach consumers, production workers at Bavabi need to go through the following 7 main stages:
- Receiving raw materials
- Removing oysters
- Cleaning the shell
- Weighing and grading
- Packing bag
- Stuffed
- Exporting
Analysis of the production process of Japanese Milk Oysters
Receiving raw materials
Japanese oysters from the raw material area to the factory are received by QC to check the quality of the raw materials. Then, they are combined with the warehouse staff to receive the volume.
Japanese oysters are inspected for freshness, size, and gut recovery rate… If the Japanese oysters pass, they will be imported by QC and transferred to the preliminary processing area for workers to remove barnacles on the shell.
Removing barnacles
After passing the quality and quantity inspection stage, Japanese milk oysters are transported to the preliminary processing area. Here, workers use knives to remove barnacles on the outside of the shell. Ordinary people, if they do not have the preliminary processing technique, can easily cause the oyster’s mouth to break. However, the preliminary processing workers at Bavabi are all trained before entering production, so this situation almost never happens.
Cleaning oyster shells
After removing the barnacles, the milk oysters are transferred to the high-pressure spraying stage and then washed to clean the shell.
Size weighing
After cleaning, oysters are transferred to the size weighing area and at the same time, dead oysters that do not meet the required weight are removed. Oysters are divided into the following sizes:
- Size 4: Weight ≥ 200g, length 13cm, width 7-8cm.
- Size 6: Weight from 160 – 199g, length 11-12cm, width 6 – < 7cm.
- Size 8: Weight from 115 – 159g, length 9 – 10cm, width 5 – < 6cm.
Packing
Oysters are tied with a belt at the body, then packed into a mesh bag and tied with a plastic knot. Packing specifications are as follows:
- Size 4: Blue mesh bag, quantity 8 pieces/bag
- Size 6: Yellow mesh bag, quantity 10 pieces/bag
- Size 8: Red mesh bag, quantity 10 pieces/bag
Packing Styrofoam
After being packed in mesh bags, oysters are transferred to the foam packing stage with 2 types
Type 1: Foam packing for air transport.
Specifications: 35 37kg/box including: 30kg oysters + 1kg dry ice + foam weight, 2 plastic bags inside and outside the foam
Type 2: Foam packing for vehicle transport
Specifications: 30kg oysters/box + 4 bottles of ice in 4 corners of the box + 2 saltwater ice trays, 1 plastic bag inside the foam
(Each foam box comes with 1 instruction sheet)
Exporting goods
After being completely packed in foam, the warehouse keeper will export according to the order. Complete the process of packing milk oysters.
