The United States continues to be Vietnam’s key importer of “Tra” fish with purchases worth 15.5 million USD in October alone, up 2.5 folds from a year ago, according to statistics by Vietnam’s Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP).

The figure brought the US-bound export value of “Tra” fish for the January-October period to 111 million USD, up 71 percent compared with the same period of last year and making up 10 percent of the country’s total export earnings from the fish.

“Tra” fish exports to German, the Netherlands , Poland and Spain also showed signs of recovery in October, VASEP said, but adding that downward world export prices have eaten into Vietnam ’s earnings from “tra” fish.

Despite strong recovery in “Tra” fish exports to Spain - Vietnam ’s largest second importer of the product with a 31.7 percent year-on-year rise in volume in October, the Spain-bound “Tra” exports value in the January-October period, barely reached 104 million USD, down 0.8 percent from a year ago.

Exports of the fish to the EU also went down nearly 7 percent to 454 million USD while earnings from Russia and Ukraine – Vietnam ’s two key markets in 2008, plunged 95 percent and over 82 percent, respectively.

VASEP predicted that “tra” export to the US can face many difficulties after the Agricultural Law 2008 takes effect. It therefore called on Vietnamese seafood exporters to increase the quality of “Tra” fish exports to meet the market’s requests on technology and food hygiene and safety.

According to VASEP, Vietnam ’s “Tra” fish exports have grown 50 folds in volume and 65 folds in value in just a decade to make up 99.9 percent of the world’s market. The fish is currently a Vietnam ’s key export staple, bringing in an estimated of 1.4 billion USD this year./.