The Vietnam Pangasius Association forecasts thatexport revenue of tra fish will hit US$1.5 billion in 2020, lower than the 2019 figure of US$2 billion mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, the structure of the export market has changed as China and Hong Kong (China) have risen to account for over 33% of Vietnam’s tra fish exports, followed by the US with 16.6%, ASEAN with nearly 10% and the EU with over 9%.

Although Vietnamese tra fish has been present in almost all markets across the world, tra fish exports in the past 10 years have depended largely on the Chinese market asChina imported Vietnamese tra fish to sell to Russia and the EU.

Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of An Giangprovince Tran Anh Thu said that Vietnam should promote brand building and the restructuring of the farming process of tra fish to directly export the products to potential markets without intermediaries in order to boost the sustainable export of tra fish.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the production and export of tra fish as the export revenue of tra fish fell in all major export markets, reaching only US$1 billion in the first nine months of this year.

According to the Vietnam Pangasius Association, the trafish farming sector is facing difficulties due to the declining quality of breeding fish, resulting in high loss rates during farming and low production efficiency. The impact of climate change has also increasesd epidemics while water resources in upstream provinces such as AnGiang and Dong Thap are low and other coastal provinces are suffering salt intrusion.

In addition, trade and technical barriers are still ongoing combined with difficulties in the implementation of new regulations of the Chinese authorities and new rules under the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).

The Vietnam Pangasius Association recommended enterprises should improve the quality of tra fish products, obey conditions on farming, processing and export while applying science and technology in the production of breeding fish and farming.

Enterprises in the field also need to promote domestic and international consumption markets in addition to consolidating their prestige and brands.

Source: Báo Nhân Dân