Coordinator out next month to bolster tra fish export

A coordination board for promoting tra fish export to the U.S. and a few other major markets will come out next month, an effort built on the success of a similar board set up months ago for boosting tra fish export to Russia.

Duong Ngoc Minh, head of the management board for tra fish export to Russia, would be in charge of setting up the new board to help fish exporters to better penetrate the U.S., Ukraine and Egypt.

Minh told the Daily that preparations for the board initiated by the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development are underway in collaboration with the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep).

The new board will help boost tra fish, a type of catfish popular in the Mekong Delta, to the major markets mentioned above, and will serve as a coordinator to avoid undercutting among local exporters. Similar boards for other markets will also be established later, he said.

“Tra fish exports to major markets in recent times have encountered many problems with regard to quality and prices due unhealthy competition between exporters. The average price has fallen from US$2.28 per kilo earlier this year to US$2.13 per kilo now,” he said.

Meanwhile, the price of fish products bound for Russia is stabilized, thanks to the regulation of the export board, and “that’s why we want other markets to follow the Russian model,” he said.

The export price in the second quarter recovered from the big slump in the first quarter of the year, when the price in March nosedived 23% year on year.

In its latest report, the agriculture ministry said many of the 200 Vietnamese fish exporters just tried to build up their own brands as well as market shares without paying due care to boosting the common image of Vietnamese tra fish. A minority of exporters even competed with others by lowering prices of tra fish products.

“The situation used to happen with exports to Russia and led to the temporary ban of Russian authorities in the past. However, with the harmonization role of the management board, things have changed for the better, and only exporters capable of providing safe products are allowed,” said Minh as head of the board for Russia.

According to Vasep, the price of tra fish shipped to the EU market in the first half of the year has decreased due to the euro depreciation against the U.S. dollar coupled with a drop in demand there. While the production cost has swollen by some VND1,000 to VND2,000 per kilo, the selling price has fallen by VND500 to VND1,000 per kilo, Vasep noted.

In the mid-year review on tra fish exports held in Can Tho City earlier this month, agriculture minister Cao Duc Phat demanded quick action by the Delta Mekong’s Tra Fish Association, which since its debut in September last year has done little to buoy up sagging prices and unhealthy competition.

The association, which gathers officials of provinces such as Can Tho, An Giang, Kien Giang, and Dong Thap, was told to tightly control the raising area and provide farmers with market and pricing information to help balance supply and demand.

Tags: Vietnam Tra fish exports