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High production costs cause worries to tra fish producers
Tra fish exporters still feel unhappy, even though the tra fish export volume increased by five percent, while export turnover increased by 21 percent in the first quarter of the year in comparison with the same period of 2010. The difficulties in material access plus the high production costs have been threatening their business.
Production costs nearly equal to sale prices
The average tra fish export price in March 2011, increased by a little over January and February, from 2.55 dollars per kilo to 2.62 dollars per kilo, which is higher than the average export price of 2.14 dollars per kilo in 2010.
Especially, the price of exports to the US market was highest at 4 dollars per kilo, while the export price to Europe 3.4-3.5 dollars per kilo. It is expected that the export price would keep rising in the second quarter of the year.
However, seafood exporters, who attended the conference on reviewing the export in the first quarter of 2011, held on April 25 in HCM City, said the figures should not be seen as good news. The problem is that the export price has been increasing, but the production costs have also been rising, with the production costs now coming more closely to the sale prices.
Nguyen Van Ky, General Director of Agifish in An Giang province, which ranks fourth among the biggest seafood exporters in the first three months of the year; said the material shortage has been seriously affecting enterprise’s operations, including the enterprises which have their own aquaculture areas.
Ky said that the company needs some 65,000 tons of fish materials in 2011 to fulfill its production plan. However, Ky fears that his company would not find enough materials needed.
“I had working sessions with 100 fish material suppliers, but they said they can only provide 20,000 tons at maximum out of 60,000 tons,” he said.
“I have also been moving heaven and earth to seek supply sources, but I am afraid that we will still lack 1/3 of the total materials needed in the other nine months of the year,” he continued.
Thai An Lai, Deputy Chair of the Dong Thap Fisheries Association, said that both the cultivated areas and the output had been decreasing towards the end of the first quarter. By that time, the aquaculture area had dropped by 201 hectares to 861 hectares, while the output had been lower by 10,800 tons than the same period of 2010.
According to Lai, the biggest problem now for seafood producers is the lack of capital. In 2010, a lot of tra farming households incurred losses from farming and lost capital, therefore, it is very difficult to access bank loans now. Meanwhile, the supply of breeding fish has also decreased, because farmers hesitate to pour money into farming at this moment, when the input expenses are getting more expensive.
He went on to say that since early 2011, the feed for aquaculture has increased five times from 9500 dong to 11,500 dong per kilo, while there has been no sign showing that 11,500 dong would be the highest level. Farmers now have to pay 2200 dong for small breeding fish, while the price was 1400-1600 dong only in mid 2010.
As such, though seafood exporters can sell tra fish at 28,000 dong per kilo. They have to pay 25,000 dong already for all kinds of expenses. However, the margin of 3000 dong per kilo would not be attainable if epidemics occur.
Bad management blamed
Ky believes that the settlement of the material shortage, the problems in the quality of breeding fish, the low quality of feed and veterinary medicine proves to be beyond enterprise’s capacity. He has blamed the problems on the bad management and programming.
“Our enterprise is one of the biggest enterprises in An Giang province, with 18 hectares of fish material ponds. However, no state management agencies have sent officials to our company to seek information about materials,” he said. “That explains why Vietnam is still bad in programming the industry development”
Experts have also pointed out that as Vietnam cannot control the material sources, it will never be able to control the export prices in the world market.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) have criticized some enterprises which exported products at the prices lower than the floor prices. It also said that some low quality consignments still could “go through” management agencies to reach the foreign markets, which have badly affected the prestige of Vietnamese products.
vietnamnet
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