Exporters predict tra fish shortage

HCM CITY — Export of tra fish is expected to hit a roadblock next year due to a combination of internal and external factors, industry insiders told a meeting held in HCM City on Tuesday.

They forecast exports to fall from around 645,000 tonnes this year to 360,000 tonnes.

Duong Ngoc Minh, head of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP)'s Freshwater Fish Commission, said "production will see a nosedive because of a severe raw material shortage that could last until September." But he did not explain the cause of the shortage.

Besides, prices are likely to skyrocket, putting exporters at a disadvantage in oversea markets, he said, explaining input costs had risen sharply. Manioc prices have doubled from VND3,000 per kilogramme while rice bran prices had gone up from VND3,500 to VND5,500.

Loan interest rates have also gone up considerably in the last few weeks.

Minh said: "Banks have turned their backs on fish farmers and processors. Whether the development of tra fish will be sustainable largely depends on their support."

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said credit would remain hard for fish farmers and traders to access.

"The Government wants to ensure economic stability and fight inflation, and therefore interest rates will stay high at least in the first few months of next year," he said.

To Thi Tuong Lan, VASEP's deputy general secretary, said another challenge was that many countries in the neighbourhood, like Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, and Indonesia, had large tra farming programmes.

Besides, some import markets had erected technical barriers to control tra fish imports, she said.

Nevertheless tra would remain the key seafood export item, accounting for 28.2 per cent of exports, she said.

There are 290 tra exporters in the country who sell their products in 163 markets.

Deputy minister Bien said the Freshwater Fish Commission should co-ordinate with VASEP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to study and zone areas for catfish farming.

Businesses should focus on developing and popularising trademarks in foreign countries through promotion programmes.

They should establish close links with farmers to ensure supply of fish for processing.

Nguyen Huu Dung, deputy chairman of VASEP, said the businesses also needed to get international quality certification such as GlobalGAP to sustainably develop the tra industry.

There are now 20 businesses that have obtained GlobalGAP.

Source: vnagency.com.vn