Pangasius industry looks for ways out of trap

The Vietnam Association ofSeafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has proposed that the Stateestablish a production quota for tra fish (pangasius) in order to avoidan oversupply.

The country's seafood exportsreached 1.8 billion USD by the end of the third quarter, an increase of12.5 percent over the same period last year, according to VASEP.

However, tra fish output in the first nine months of this yeardeclined 11 percent to 723,000 tonnes, according to the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The trendis expected to last beyond the end of this year, forcing almost all trafish export processing factories to temporarily halt production, saidDuong Ngoc Minh, VASEP deputy chairman.

The proposalwas one of several plans that the association submitted to the PrimeMinister for restructuring production and consumption of tra fish toboost sustainable development.

VASEP suggested thatthe MARD establish an annual quota for each province producing tra fishand ensure that it was maintained.

The specificquantity would be determined by the MARD, the VASEP and the Vietnam TraFish Association as well as provincial People's Committees andprovincial seafood associations based on forecasts about exports anddomestic consumption from the VASEP and the Ministry of Industry andTrade.

Then the Committees and associations wouldestablish quotas for individual farms. They would also control theproduction process and quality of raw materials.

VASEP has also proposed a pilot mechanism for exporting Vietnamese trafish products to the EU. To limit unfair competition, the Zeebrgge Portin Belgium would distribute them to 28 EU markets. VASEP would take careof transport, logistics, auctions on electronic trading floor,distribution and payment.-VNA