Tra fish exports see positive signs

Tra fish (pangasius) shipments to the EU market picked up positive signs with the export value jumping by 29.9 per cent to US$33.1 million between January and the first half of February, as reported Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development set a target of raking in an estimated US$2.4 billion from tra fish exports, up 12 percent.

Tra fish shipments to four major EU importers, including the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, and Belgium posted year on year hikes of 2.2 percent, 36 percent, 73.7 percent, and 89 percent, respectively.

Statistics by the International Trade Centre (ITC) show that in 2018, frozen Cod fillets made significant proportions of 22 - 31 percent of the EU’s whitefish imports while Alaska pollack fillets held shares ranging from 12-20 percent.

The vast majority of tra fish products shipped to the EU market came from Vietnam. Some EU member countries have set about purchasing tra fish products from Indonesia in recent years, but the proportion still remained modest.

Most of the fillets sent to the EU were frozen while preliminarily processed staples and some categories of added value products were made by European processing firms.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development set a target of increasing the total tra fish output by 6.6 per cent to 1.51 million tons and raking in an estimated US$2.4 billion from tra fish exports, up 12 percent.

To reach this goal, the ministry has encouraged localities and enterprises to tap into their advantages in tra fish aquaculture and to pay greater attention to the in-depth processing with a view to creating high added value products.