Export markets now open for Vietnamese tra and basa

VietNamNet Bridge – Russia and several other markets have increased purchases of seafood from Vietnam, bringing big opportunities to exporters and farmers.

Fish prices will increase

Good news has come to farmers in the Mekong Delta who have been weeping about the sharp falls in tra and basa prices in the last several months: Orders for Vietnam’s tra and basa have increased by two to three fold in comparison with the same period of last year.

According to the Committee for Fish Exporting to Russia, exports of tra and basa to the market have picked up. In May and June 2009, over 10,000 tonnes of tra and basa were exported, while the figure is expected to be 15,000 tonne in July.

The said committee said that in July, Russia will stop importing fish from Chile, Canada and China, which also means that Vietnamese exporters will have more opportunities. From now to the end of 2009, Vietnam may export 70,000 tonnes of tra and basa to Russia. This market has also been consuming over-sized Vietnamese fish.

A representative of the committee said that before the end of June 2009, the committee will send representatives to Russia to sign export contracts for July, August and September 2009. After the contracts are signed, Vietnamese enterprises will collect fish from farmers at prices 500-1,000 dong per kilogramme higher than the current price. Currently, fillet tra and basa are being sold at $3.1 per kilogramme to Russia.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has said that many export markets in the world have increased orders with Vietnamese exporters. For example, demand from the East European market has increased by four times over the same period of last year. Chile and Peru are also increasing imports, while Mexico has raised its import volume by two fold. Some African countries have raised ordered volumes by ten times.

$1.3 billion within reach

Though the US International Trade Commission (ITC) has decided to maintain the anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese tra and basa, VASEP is still optimistic about Vietnamese fish exports, saying that this won’t affect them too much.

In the first five months of the year, Vietnam exported $477 million worth of tra and basa, down by 4 percent over the same period of last year. With the low exports, VASEP predicted that the total export turnover of fish would be some $1 billion this year. However, as the situation has become better, the association thinks that the target of $1.3 billion is within reach.

Tra farming has been developing rapidly in Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta. In 2006, Mekong Delta had 3,797 hectares of tra farming area, while the figure was 5,700 hectares in 2008. However, the continued price decreases in the last several months and the heavy losses in 2008 have driven many farmers away. Tra and basa prices have dropped from 16-17,000 dong per kilogramme to 14,000 dong, with which farmers are incurring the loss of 1,000 dong per kilogramme. A lot of farmers have been trying to bargain fish away to get money to pay debts and pay for feed. However, they have been advised to not do this with the new news. Duong Ngoc Minh, General Director of Hung Vuong Seafood Company, said that seafood workshops have halted collecting fish because foreign partners have been on vacation and have halted transactions. However, Minh said normal trade will resume in late July and early August, when local workshops will push up collecting fish for processing for export contracts. Minh has affirmed that export prices will increase again as many import countries are pushing up imports to store up products for the year’s end.

VietNamNet/NLD