(pangasius-vietnam.com) Seafood
According to Can Tho Department of Industry and Trade, in first three quarter of 2011, the province has exported 96,900 MT of seafood, equivalent to 59.8 percent of yearly plan, down 15.1 percent from the same period of 2010. Export value was at US$305.1 million, equivalent to 61 percent of yearly plan, up 9.9 percent, accounting for 35.7 percent of Can Tho total exports of goods.
From the beginning of the year, seafood firms in Can Tho were pushed to limit its processing operation due to great scarcity of black tiger shrimp and pangasius. Recently, pangaius processors could ensure only 40 – 60 percent of fish supply. Many shrimp companies which had no owned shrimp farming area were affected when dead shrimp occurred across the province in early 2011.
“Recently, supply of shrimp for processing remains scarce and shrimp prices increase 20 – 30 percent. In this situation, seafood processors in Can Tho are grappling to find supply to ensure operation in the last months of year” said Pham Ngoc Truyen, Deputy Director of Nam Hai Seafood Export Company, a firm based in Tra Noc1 Industrial Park.
Since 2008, pangasius industry saw fluctuation of fish prices. Due to this, fish farmers got losses and went out of business. So far this year, pangasius exporters are dealing with unstable supply of pangasius and soaring of all input costs. Moreover, it is difficult for them to raise export prices because of inflation and sovereign public debt in pangasius importing countries. A firm in Tra Noc 2 Industrial Park (Can Tho province) said that it owned two pangasius fillet processing factories; however, it was just operating 50 percent of its total production capacity of 80 MT per day.