(vasep.com.vn) According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, in July 2012, the country totaled US$5.1 million of pangasius sales to Brazil, down nearly 26.8 percent from the same time last year. This made year-to-date earnings export equal the value of the same period of last year, reached US$34.35 million.
Fish trade with Brazil comes in downward trend while the market still imports more raw fish, particularly fish fillets for domestic consumption.
According to statistics from International Trade Center, Brazil spent US$615.891 million on imports of raw fish materials, up from US$605.254 million in the same period of 2011. In which, frozen fish fillets counted US$220 million, up from US$205.9 million in the first six months of 2011.
It is clear that Brazil showed constant demand for fish in January – June 2012 while its import of fish from Vietnam has been slowing down or even saw drop over the recent months. Decline in Vietnam fish sales abroad was due to lower production caused by many difficulties for the industry. Moreover, Brazil began stimulating the production of farmed-tilapia.
Fish fillets are the most imported items of Brazilian buyers. The country’s import value has grown in recent years.
In 2011, expenses for imported fish were two times higher than those of a year ago. This time, Vietnam’s earnings from fish export to Brazil grew fast and even reached the triple and quadruple digit growth. However, the fish trade was slowing down in 2012, especially in April and June. In June alone, revenue from exporting fish products to the market fell by 38 percent to the lowest level of US$3.6 million. Some observers said that fish trade with Brazil will unlikely reach growth equal or higher than that in the previous years.