Increase in Australia’s pangasius imports and consumption

Catch volume is low while the domestic market continues to show increasing demand for fishery products. Besides, higher fish quotas would place fishery resources at risk while not enhancing significantly seafood supply security for Australians.

Australia has to import a very large volume of seafood from different supplying sources in the world to meet the consumption. Imported seafood products make up 70 percent of national consumption. The seafood imports into the country have remained growth since 2011 and just saw a drop of 10 percent in 2008.

In 2012, Australia spent US$824.5 million to import seafood products (HS code 03), increasing 10.9 percent against the previous year. Vietnam ranked third among Australia’s suppliers with total value of US$121.7 million, after New Zealand (US$172.04 million) and China (US$160.9 million). Vietnamese exports of frozen fish fillets (HS code 0304) to this market valued at US$65.2 million.

Frozen hake fillets were 5,729 MT, representing the largest part in Australia’s total imports of frozen fish fillets in 2012.Frozen pangasius and catfish fillets from Vietnam, China, Singapore, Thailand and Myanmar ranked the second with 5,560 MT.

In the first half of 2013, Australia sourced 3,191 MT of frozen hake fillets from 8 countries, up 26.8 percent from the same period of 2012. It also consumed 2,549 MT of frozen pangasius from Vietnam up 47.8 percent. Vietnamese pangasius products are accepted to appear in Australian fish outlets thank to high quality, food safety and goof flavour.

Australian economy has got the lowest growth over the recent two years, leading to cutting expenses for consumption. However, the country has stayed out of economic downturn over consecutive 22 years. With a population of 23 million of people and an average income of US$60,000 per person per year, Australia will still be a potential market for international seafood exporters in the coming time.