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Mekong Delta: Demand for Tra fish returns
Relevant authorities in the Mekong Delta have proposed measures to boost exports of Tra fish. After the crisis of supplying over demand last year, prices of Tra fish have now risen again owing to resurgent exports.
At present, a kilo of Tra fish fetches VND15,300 to 15,800, ($0.88-90), an increase of between VND1,000 to 2,000 since the beginning of the year.
The increase in prices is credited to the sharp fall in current output. After the crisis of supplying over demand in 2008, farmers in the delta decided to reduce the size of fish farms by 35 percent, or 6,200 hectares in total.
As such, seafood plants in the region are currently lacking produce as supply is failing to keep up with demand.
Farmers in the delta are said to have enjoyed a big advantage because prices of Tra fish are expected to continue to climb due to a hike in the costs of breeding animals, medicines, feed and wages.
Local farmers are facing difficulties though, including funds and necessary information about markets and unstable prices of feed.
As a measure to ease farmers’ problems related to shortage of funds and help seafood enterprises to get adequate produce, the chairman of the An Giang Fisheries Association, Phan Van Danh, suggested that businesses and farmers should sign contracts together.
Under the contracts, businesses will advance funds to farmers and help them improve their produce by providing them with necessary information about market demands and consumer tastes, while farmers are simply responsible for supplying produce.
This will not only help eliminate the unhealthy competition between farmers by predatorily cutting prices but also prevent businesses from squeezing fish breeders when there is a plentiful supply of fish on the market.
For many years now, Tra fish has always been a key product for export in the Mekong Delta.
In 2008, the delta exported over 640,000 tons of Tra fish worth $1.5 billion, an increase of 48 percent over the previous year.
However, the product is not entitled to the government’s preferential policies because it has not yet been recognized as a national strategic export.
Deputy Chairman of An Giang Province People’s Committee suggested that like rice, the government should directly organize trade promotions for Tra fish, as well as manage the exports as this will help enhance the value of the product on the international market.
Nguyen Huu Dung, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that to avoid a crisis of supplying over demand and to prevent fish breeders from unhealthy competition by cutting prices, breeders should not breed Tra fish for the new crops unless they have signed contracts with seafood enterprises.
At present, the price of locally-made fish feed is high because the government does not allow imports. Mr Dung asked the Agricultural and Rural Development to propose the government allow imports of fish feed into the country, as it will help create a healthy competition related to quality and prices between locally-made and imported products.
Three months after Russia issued the ban on Vietnam’s export of Tra fish, due to poor quality and hygiene, into the country on December 12, 2008, the Vietnam Tra Fish Export Management Board visited Russia to officially sign contracts with Russian businesses, under which, Vietnam will be allowed to export Tra fish to Russia in the coming future, the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development announced yesterday.
Among the list of thirty Vietnamese companies allowed to export seafood to Russia, ten are Tra fish exporters. Others are exporters of dried seafood and fish pie.
Two on the list are also permitted to export shrimp to Russia for the first time.
According to the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development, in 2008, Vietnam exported $200 million of Tra fish to Russia, one of Vietnam’s largest markets of Tra fish.
VietNamNet/SGGP
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