A tra fish farm in Cho Moi district (An Giang) cooperates closely with various businesses. (Photo: VNA) Tran Van Hung, general director of Hung Ca Company Limited, said thatit had been the case for many years that farmers boosted production too muchwhen they saw prices rising. Consequently, prices normally slumped heavilyafter reaching record highs.
The fish price peaked in 2018 and led to a rush on production expansion. Aboutone year later, the price began to drop sharply in price due to overproduction,from 33,000 VND (1.44 USD) to 19,000 VND per kilo, causing losses tofarmers.
The general director believes that some firms were probablymanipulating prices to tempt farmers to produce more, thereby benefiting fromthe ensuing oversupply.
“Firms benefit from falling prices since they purchase using deferredpayments,” he explained.
Nguyen Ngoc Hai, a farmer in Can Tho city, estimated that only around 10per cent of farmers could turn the rising prices to their advantage. The resthave to wait for their fish to mature.
Unfortunately, market prices will probably fall when the fish reach a suitablesize for sale, placing these farmers at a disadvantage.
“30,000 VND per kilo is not high enough to be worth the effort, but I’mconcerned that the prices might fall soon,” he said.
Another farmer Tuan in Dong Thap province shares the concern. He said he wouldsell about 1,000 tonnes of the fish to China at 30,000 VND per kilo. Withfarming costs of 25,000 VND per kilo, the batch is expected to earn 5billion VND, enough to offset his previous three-year losses.
However, the farmer is worried that fish feed prices have risen by 40 percent,to 14,000 VND per kilo. Fingerlings have doubled in price to 60,000 VNDper kilo.
That means he is spending 27,000 VND on every kilo of tra fish harvestednext season.
“If tra fish prices drop nextseason due to overproduction, farmers will probably have to sell their fish ata loss," he said.
Trung Tin, another farmer in Dong Thap, said that mounting fish feed andfingerlings prices usually go hand in hand with rising prices.
He estimates that farming costs will rise to over 25,000 VND per kilonext season. That means all farmers’ efforts will be wasted if the fishprices go back to 22,000-24,000 VND.
Le Chi Binh, vice president of An Giang province’s Pangasius Farming andProcessing Association, urged farmers not to expand farming areas amid risingprices because the prices were expected to level off in July.
He also said that farmers who increase output regardless wouldbecome unprofitable due to abundant supply.
To Thi Tuong Lan, deputy general secretary of Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers, reported growth in Vietnamese tra fish export in Q1.
She said that tra fish pricesin the US market had recently peaked at 3.95 USD per kilo and were unlikely togrow any higher. The same is also true for the Chinese market.
Accordingly, she believes farmers and firms should align production with demandto prevent overproduction from reoccurring.
She suggested the production target for 2022 equals that of 2021, ataround 1.6 million tonnes.
Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, urgedlocalities to keep farming areas in line with production plan and to improvethe quality of fingerlings and fish feed, thereby ensuring stableoutput and export.
He also called for close cooperation between farms and firms throughsupply contracts so the latter could monitor production more closely.
In 2021, Vietnam produced 1.52 million tonnes and exported 1.62 billion USD of tra fish.
The production target was set at 1.6-1.7 million tonnes and export revenues atover $1.6 billion this year./.
VNA
