Viet Nam plans to boost its seafood exports to Europe – a promising market with a huge demand for tra fish (Pangasius), according to an industry insider.
Vice President of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) Nguyen Huu Dung, confirmed Viet Nam's export intentions while receiving European Parliament Member Struan Stevenson, who highlighted the achievements of Viet Nam's tra fish industry during the past decade, in Ha Noi on Monday.
Viet Nam has focused on improving the quality of its seafood products while prioritising the sustainable development of the tra fish sector, Dung said. Tra fish processors have adopted international hygienic safety and environmentally friendly standards in order to receive Global Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification.
| US slashes duties on Vietnamese shrimp
The US Department of Commerce has revised the anti-dumping duties it applied to 22 Vietnamese shrimp importers between February 1, 2006, and January 31, 2007, the website seafood.com reported late last week, saying the move was in response to a ruling on the case of Amanda Foods (Viet Nam) Ltd.
Under the revised tariffs, the Vietnamese shrimp exporters enjoy a de minimis duty of 0.01 per cent. The ruling therefore effectively ends duties on Vietnamese shrimp exports to the US by these companies, with the history of anti-dumping duties suggesting that, once they reach de minimis level, they tend to stay there.
The US had earlier cut the anti-dumping duties from 3.92 per cent to 1.52 per cent for 29 Vietnamese shrimp exporters.
Seafood export value surged 29.2 per cent in the first four months of this year to US$1.6 billion, compared to the same period last year. |
Dung added that the fisheries sector had achieved remarkable achievements in tra fish aquaculture and exports. Tra fish ranked second amongst Viet Nam's seafood products in terms of export volume. The country's present tra fish farming areas had quintupled to 6,000ha since 2001.
Tra fish output had risen from 37,500 tonnes in 2001 to 1.35 million tonnes in 2010, its export value increasing from US$40 million to almost $1.43 billion. Amongst Viet Nam's 136 tra fish importers, Europe is the largest, adding 35.8 per cent to the country's total export revenue, he said Over 49 tra fish processors (45 per cent of Viet Nam's fish processors) have started applying GlobalGAP standards while five tra fish farms have adopted the Pangasius Aquaculture Dialogues (PAD) and ASC standards.
Viet Nam has signed a co-operation agreement with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) based on the sustainable development of the tra fish sector in order to meet ASC standards through the Aquaculture Improvement Project (AIP) for tra fish to be run during the 2011-15 period.
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