A tra fish processing factory (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – An event took place in Hanoi on June 9to help promote the domestic consumption of tra fish products, a major foreigncurrency earner that has been hit hard by impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Addressing the event, Minister of Agricultureand Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said after more than 20 years ofdevelopment, the tra fish sector has reaped encouraging outcomes with 6,000haof farming areas generating 2.5 billion USD in annual export value.
However, he noted, aside from expanding exportmarkets, businesses also need to pay attention to the domestic market so as toboost production and ensure more stable prices for tra fish products.
Cuong explained that a strong domestic marketwill help ease the pressure on export, raise export prices, and stimulateproduction. Local consumers will also have more options to choose.
Vietnamese tra fish has been shipped to 119markets around the world.
On November 1, 2019, the US Department ofAgriculture officially recognised that Vietnam’s pangasius food safety controlsystem is equivalent to the US one, which affirmed the quality ofVietnamese tra fish and helped facilitate the export to not only the US butalso other demanding markets.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has pushedproduction, business and export activities of many sectors, including the trafish industry, into stagnation.
In the first five months of 2020, the tra fish output wasestimated at 462,000 tonnes, down 6.3 percent year on year. Meanwhile, exportsdropped 39 percent to 456 million USD, with shipments to China down 48 percent,the EU down 47 percent and the US down nearly 20 percent.
The sudden nosedive in exports has exposed businesses to numerousdifficulties when a large volume of tra fish remains in warehouses due toexport disruption and orders were cancelled. Meanwhile, it is forecast thatthis industry will have to wait until the third quarter of this year to fullyrecover.
Giventhis, to address current hardships, it is necessary to concurrently develop thedomestic market and boost overseas shipments, the event heard.
Thetra fish sector targets 1.42 million tonnes in output and about 2 billion USDin export revenue this year./.
VNA
