Harvesting tra fish in the Mekong Delta (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam’s tra fish exports face anarray of difficulties and challenges on the path to achieving this year’sexport revenue target of more than 2 billion USD, including high anti-dumpingduties, technical barriers and unhealthy competition.
According to the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers (VASEP), tra fish exports in the first three months of2018 hit 430 million USD, up nearly 16 percent from the same period last year.
This is relatively strong growth amid thecontinued sharp fall in exports to the EU and obstacles to shipping to the US.
Ong Hang Van, Deputy Director General of theTruong Giang Fishery Holdings Corp, said in the first three months, raw trafish for export processing was not abundant while material prices were high,causing many difficulties for businesses. However, most import markets boughttra fish at higher prices, which grew by up to 30 percent year on year.
Some tra fish products were previously sold atabout 2.2 USD per kg, now prices have exceeded 3 USD per kg. Price hikes areone of the main factors fuelling the surge of tra fish export turnover, Vannoted.
Director of the Dai Thanh Co. Ltd Ha Van Tinhsaid although tra fish exports to the US face challenges, shipments to othermarkets enjoy favourable conditions, including good prices.
The US Department of Commerce recently announcedthe result of the 13th period of review (POR 13) of anti-dumping duties onVietnam’s frozen tra fillets exported from August 1, 2015 to July 31, 2016.
The high tax rate of 3.87 USD per kg under POR13 is forecast to make it more difficult for the already small number ofeligible exporters of tra fish to the US to maintain their foothold in themarket. Meanwhile, the US’s ongoing inspection of Vietnamese catfish is stillaffecting exports to the US.
[US’s antidumping duty ruling lacks legal basis: MARD]
VASEP Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe said theimposition of high duties on Vietnamese tra fish is not a first. However, thetax rate under POR 13 is too high, beyond businesses’ imagination. With thistax rate, it will be difficult to sell tra fillets to the US.
However, he added, companies can work with USimporters to consider exporting non-fillet products.
Meanwhile, some enterprises said tra fishexports to China, Japan and ASEAN are rising sharply, enough to make up for thedrops in the EU and the US. Nevertheless, soaring shipments to China also havelatent risks.
Hoe said businesses are improving tra fishvalue, quality and image to boost export to China. However, some of them arecompeting on price. If negative factors in export price competition are notresolved well, it will be hard to sustainably export tra fish to this market.
In the first quarter, tra fish exports to Chinagrew by about 42 percent from the same period last year, helping this marketsurpass the US to become the biggest tra fish importer of Vietnam. In Januaryalone, about 41 million USD worth of tra fish was shipped to China, up 132percent from a year earlier.
VASEP said inconsistent quality control andexport prices of tra fish shipped via official and unofficial channels to Chinahave led to unfair competition and caused instability in material supply.
To avoid overdependence on a single market,VASEP has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to up thequality management of tra fish sold to China in the next three months when rawmaterial supply becomes abundant. The ministry was also urged to examine trafish processing establishments and devise a long-term strategy for exports toChina.-VNA
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