(pangasius-vietnam.com.vn) Over 12 years of remarkable development, Vietnamese pangasius industry hit a record high of 1.3 million MT of fish production in 2012, 650-fold higher than that reported in 2000; pangasius exports increased by 692 times to US$1.8 billion. Export markets for pangasius products expanded rapidly to 136 countries and territories. Pangasius became the fastest-growing sector with a few areas for farming activities but high yield. Land for pangasius production was 6,000 hectares, equal to 1 percent of that for shrimp cultivation.
However, the rapid and spontaneous expansion of farming activities caused weakening prices of exported pangasius. Average prices for pangasius dropped from US$3.76 USD per kilogram in 2000 to US$2.2 per kilogram in 2012, leading to anti-dumping disputes. Through September 2013, pangasius production and farming superficies decreased by 13 percent and 11 percent, respectively.
Value-added products shared only 1 percent of Vietnam total pangasius export value. Many fish farmers and processors got into trouble due to business losses.
On October 24th, 2013, a meeting of pangasius companies in Mekong Delta was held in the city of Can Tho. Most companies’ representatives agreed to support proper measures introduced by VASEP to cut down pangasius production through imposing quotas for fish production. They believed that it was the priority measure to save the pangasius industry during the tough economic time.
Participants to the meeting also discussed a new way to export pangasius to the EU market.
Vietnam pangasius industry must reorganize export to the EU through establishing a distribution center for frozen pangasius fillets exported to the market. The fish will be landed at the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium and then be distributed to other places in the block. This measure is hoped to improve the volume, value and market shares of Vietnam frozen pangasius fillets in European markets.
European imports of pangasius from Vietnam got a boom in the 2003-2008 period. Import value rose from US$17 million to US$581 million. Proportion of EU-driven cargos in Vietnam total pangasius export value increased from 20.7 percent to 48 percent in 2007. Since 2008, pangasius sales saw the downtrend in both value and market shares in Europe. In the first eight months of 2013, shipments to the EU continued to down 12 percent to US$254 million. The proportion was down to 22.4 percent compared to 24.4 percent in 2012.