Exports of tra and basa fish were up by 13 percent in volume and nine percent in revenues year on year to 52,000 tonnes and almost 116 million USD, respectively, in May, reported the General Customs Office.

The US has surpassed Spain to emerge as the largest importer of Vietnam ’s tra and basa, spending 12.7 million USD on the fish or up six percent over April and 20 percent year on year.

Exports to Spain and many other European markets dropped due to the debt crisis now hitting the continent with revenue from Spain, once the largest market, down by 10 percent month on month to 11 million USD.

Exports of tra and basa to Germany , decreased by 16 percent month on month to 6.6 million USD in May and to Holland , 24 percent to 5.7 million USD. Belgium was the worst with exports to this market down by more than half to 1.5 million USD.

The opposite trend was seen in exports to other markets such as Russia and Egypt with impressive growth recorded in May. Export revenues to Russia , for instance, surged 134 percent over April to 7.2 million USD, sending the country up seven places to the third position in the list of Vietnam ’s leading tra and basa importers.

A boom in the exportation of the fish has benefited farmers in the Mekong Delta as the wholesale prices slightly increased by 200 VND per kilogramme to between 16,000 and 16,300 VND. The prices were sharply decreased in June’s final week.

The national output of tra and basa fish increased 5.8 percent year on year to some 500,000 tonnes in the first half of the year as productivity rose by 16 tonnes per ha, reported the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

MARD also reported a full-year export target of 600,000 tonnes of the fish, valued at 1.5 billion USD or almost 160 million USD over the previous year, by the Mekong Delta, the country’s leading supplier of the fish./.