Tra Fish Export

According to VASEP, Vietnam has exported over 472,000 tonnes of tra fish worth over US$ 1 billion in the first nine months of 2010. In the last three months, the country is expected to earn US$400,000 from the fish export, bringing the total annual tra fish export turnover to US$$1.5 billion. Mr Duong Ngoc Minh, Vice President of VASEP in charge of tra fish export, said: In previous years, the demand for exported tra fish peaked from July to October. However, this was not the case this year. The monthly shipments have not exceeded the benchmark of 59,662 tonnes created in July 2009.

 

More alarmingly, declines happened in both big importers like the U.S. and fast-growing importers like the Middle East and Mexico. The catfish price has sunk to a record low while the price slump happened in one or two months in previous years. For the time being, the global demand for tra catfish is growing up because China's tilapia output tumbled 20 percent due to bad weather and the Philippines’ tuna output is declining (the Philippines is the seventh largest tuna exporter in the world. As a result, the fish price is adding up by VND1,000 - 2,000 to reach VND18,000 per kilo. With constantly high demand from importing markets and limited production in the Mekong Delta, the price of tra catfish is climbing. Shrinking output and growing export price are good signs for exporters to increase revenues. At the same time, this is a golden chance for policymakers to rebalance supply-demand and restructure the tra catfish industry for the long-term development.

 

Apart from price hike, Vietnamese tra fish processors and exporters are confronting new challenges and market changes, specially material supply in 2011. Many companies are upsetting with a 10 - 30 percent rise in imported materials and 70-10 percent increase in other input costs because they cannot pick up the prices. Mr Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of VASEP, said: The output boom in 2008 brought in 2 million tonnes of tra catfish a year while some Mekong Delta provinces are leaving aquatic farms idle. The halt may halve the 2011 output to 1 million tonnes. Besides, harder access to bank loans multiplied difficulties against small households who cannot continue farming without enough capital.

 

Another chief challenge against Vietnamese catfish exporters is technical barriers raised by importing markets to protect domestic production. Not only the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed antidumping tax of 130 percent on Vietnamese tra catfish, several other countries like Ukraine, Mexico and Spain also introduce stricter measures to control the Vietnamese fish. Worse, mass media in the EU continues running libelous information about Vietnamese catfish and confusing investors of the Vietnamese food.

 

Meanwhile, some countries like Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia are financially supporting from the government. With these VASEP said to the meeting delegates that the plan of raking in US$1.5 billion from tra (or pangasius) exports in 2010. The revised value is around US$1.37 billion.

Promoting Global Gap Standard to Pangasius Culture

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong, to ride out current difficulties, Vietnamese companies need to boost tra manufacturing and processing efficiency by improving quality rather than quantity. They should support to use Global GAP standards to culture tra fish ad support exporters to set up floor prices when they export to certain markets to protect the reputation and image of products and ensure profitable production. Phuong underscored that the value of tra fish products will increase from 10 percent to 20 percent compared with conventional products and will penetrate more demanding markets if Vietnam applies Global GAP Standards. Global GAP tra fish culturing model is an ideal direction and companies are recommended to build a good image of Vietnamese tra catfish.

 

Also at the meeting, VASEP put forth four main groups of solutions to the tra catfish industry since 2011, including: increasing the average export price of Vietnamese catfish; stabilising input material production; boosting product quality management; and promoting advertisement. The association also laid an emphasis on establishing floor export prices of tra catfish and outlining production development plan with 1 million tonnes a year. Floor price is calculated upon cost factors, including cost of raw materials, to ensure profits for farmers. The floor price is widely publicised and the Administration of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (Nafiqad) will withdraw export permits from violating companies. According to Mr Minh, VASEP proposed floor export prices of tra fish at US$2.8 per kilo in 2010.

 

VASEP said continuous price slumps caused many farmers to abandon tra fish culturing, threatening the supply of raw materials and affecting the sustained development of processing industry. Accordingly, to develop internal material sources, companies need to strictly control and stabilise production inputs. Attending businesses proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to zone aquaculture area and orient raw material production and distribution. Also, to build the image of Vietnamese tra catfish in the hearts of global consumers and avoid misleading rumours about the quality of catfish in Vietnam, VASEP proposed setting up the “Vietnam Tra Export Development Fund” funded by exporters. The association will continue sending member enterprises to international exhibitions, seminars and trade fairs in key markets.