Farmers harvest tra fish in Thot Not district, the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho (Photo: VNA)HCM City (VNA) – Vietnam’s tra fish (pangasius)industry has been urged to strongly improve its quality so as to compete withnot only traditional rivals, but also its biggest tra fish importer – China.
According to the Vietnam Association of SeafoodExporters and Producers (VASEP), the domestic tra fish sector faces manyrivals, including India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh – who each represents around15-20 percent of global production.
The global production of farmed tra fish wasestimated at 2.8 million tonnes in 2018, up 6 percent from the previous year,and about 45 percent of this total was sourced from Vietnam, mostly in theMekong Delta.
As of March 2019, there were 20 tra fishprocessing factories in China whose production capacity had reached some 30,000tonnes per year. This fact indicates that China is likely to become a big rivalto Vietnam’s tra fish industry in the near future, VASEP said.
[Tra fish exports target 2.4 billion USD]
However, insiders said the competitiveness ofVietnamese tra fish should not be assessed through only quantity, but thequality of fish fry and products is the key.
To help address this issue, a high-tech tra fishfarming project covering 600 ha will be carried out in the Mekong Deltaprovince of An Giang in the fourth quarter of this year. When operational, itis expected to supply around 200,000 tonnes of high-quality raw materials eachyear for processing and subsequent export.
VASEP Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe saidonce the quality of Vietnamese tra fish is improved and wins the trust ofconsumers in demanding markets, it will also have more opportunities to be soldwell on the e-commerce platform of Alibaba of China, as well as on Amazon ofthe US.
“Through the e-commerce website (Alibaba),Vietnam’s tra fish products will have greater chances to enter this giantmarket,” he added.
In 2018, tra fish exports brought in a record of2.26 billion USD, rising 26.4 percent year-on-year. Vietnam has set a targetrevenue at 2.4 billion USD for 2019.–VNA
VNA
