Vietnam sees great opportunities to boost catfish exports

If the US-China trade war escalates, Vietnam would have opportunities to boost exports to both markets. Meanwhile, the US is considering allowing Vietnam to continue exporting catfish to the country.

Good news from the US market

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the US Department of Agriculture (DOA) on September 17 proposed to the US government to recognize Vietnam’s eligibility to export catfish to the US. 

FSIS has inspected facilities that export catfish to the US and found no problems that could harm consumer health. The agency also stated that the inspection system in Vietnam was equivalent to the US system.

If the proposal gets the US government’s approval, this would be good news for Vietnam’s catfish farmers and processors, because the US has always been a key export market for Vietnam.

Despite difficulties, caused by the high anti-dumping duties of $2.39-7.74 per kilogram imposed on Vietnam’s catfish products, Vietnam still has gained encouraging results in exporting catfish to the US.

If the proposal gets the US government’s approval, this would be good news for Vietnam’s catfish farmers and processors, because the US has always been a key export market for Vietnam.

The US exceeded China to once again become the biggest importer of Vietnam’s catfish in July, consuming $58.5 million worth of products. In the first seven months of the year, Vietnam exported $255.3 million worth of catfish products, up by 15.6 percent compared with the same period last year.

The recognition by the US DOA will help enhance Vietnam’s catfish image to a new height. Catfish is the second most valuable seafood export of Vietnam, just after shrimp.

Catfish to benefit from trade war

Analysts say the heating up of the US-China trade war will bring great opportunities to countries which can export alternative products to both markets. Vietnam’s seafood is one of the beneficiaries.

The Trump administration imposes a 10 percent tax rate on seafood imports from China.

According to the US National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), tilapia was the biggest seafood import item of the country in 2017 (133,700 tons, $426.4 million). Meanwhile, imports from China accounted for 75 percent of total tilapia imports. 

Chinese tilapia has been dominating the US import white-meat fish market for many years. In 2017, Chinese tilapia products amounted to 45 percent of total white-meat fish imports in the US, while catfish amounted to 25 percent.

However, with taxation, the tilapia imports from China available at large supermarket chains in the US decreased by 20-30 percent. This will pave the way for Vietnam to boost the exports of white-meat fish (tra and basa) to the US.

Meanwhile, China was the biggest importer of Vietnam’s catfish in 2017. In the first seven months of 2018, Vietnam exported $289.8 million worth of catfish to China, an increase of 40.6 percent over the same period last year.