HCMC – While Vietnam’s tra fish production in the year to date has surged by 60% year-on-year, exports have plummeted by 30%.
The Vietnam Pangasius Association (VINAPA) held a meeting on November 10 in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap to look into this issue.
Though the tra fish farming area had in the year to end-October expanded by 85% year-on-year to 5,319 hectares and the harvest leapt by 61.3% to 1.33 million tons, the export revenue of the tra fish cultivation sector had totaled US$1.43 billion this year, down by 30.4% against the year-earlier period, showed data of Vietnam Customs.
Vo Hung Dung, general secretary of VINAPA, said that the record-high export growth in 2022 was due to businesses clearing their stockpiles post pandemic and seizing export opportunities as global markets reopened.
The global market for tra fish has been contracting this year, making it hard to sell, Hung added.
VINAPA attributed the decline to global economic difficulties. Key buyers of Vietnam, such as the United States, the European Union, and China, have all reduced their imports by 54%, 18%, and 25%, respectively.
Given this situation, businesses have proposed several solutions, including reducing production costs, scaling down production to maintain export prices, and intensifying promotional and trade activities in key markets while exploring niche markets.
