India consumes more pangasius from Vietnam

According to Vietnam Customs, though August 2013, Vietnam exported US$7.67 million of pangasius products to this market, compared to US$5.9 million in the same period of 2012.

Indians’ demand for seafood consumption is increasing as per-capita income has increased and the rapid urbanization led to a great range of news supermarkets. Stronger demand caused overexploitation of fish stocks. In the fiscal year of 2008 – 2009, fish catches rose 7 percent, but the figure was down 3.5 percent in 2012 – 2013.

In 2012, Indian spent US$68.39 million on seafood imports (HS03), down 39 percent from US$112.4 million in 2011. In which, seafood from Bangladesh made up 53 percent, worth US$36.39 million. Vietnam was the second supplier with US$11.25 million, equalto 16.5 percent. Market shares of Vietnamese products in India increased from 7.7 percent in 2011 to 16.5 percent in 2012. In contrast, Bangladesh’s shares downed from 77.9 percent to 53 percent in 2012.

In 2012, purchase of marine fish products (HS03) into India reported a rise compared to 2011, excluding fresh fishes (HS0302) which went down 59.8 percent. The highest growth of 829 percent was seen in live fish species (HS0301). It was followed by frozen fishes (HS0303) with a 84.6 percent rise.

Spending for imported frozen fish fillets were US$10.5 million in 2012. Vietnam was the leading supplier with US$7.69 million of value, up nearly 32 percent from US$5.8 million in 2011 and accounted for 73 percent of proportion. India mainly bought pangasius from Vietnam, which is the main factor of a strong increase in seafood imports from Vietnam during the recent years.

Currently, marine fish stocks in Indian waters are dwindling, local fishermen have to turn to smaller fishes. As a result, there were not enough raw materials with standard quality for processing fish fillets. Many Indian seafood companies supplying products to upper market segment and restaurant chains have to import pangasius from Vietnam to satisfy demands for domestic food services.  

Since 2008, wholesale prices of seafood products have increased by 131 percent in Indian market. In which, marine fishes saw rise of 91 percent, fish caught in domestic waters up 200 percent. Higher raw fish prices pushed local processors and exporters in fisheries and relevant sectors in difficulty. However, it was an opportunity for imported fish products to gain more shares in this market.

With coastal lines of 7,500 kilometers, special economic zone of 2 million square kilometers and 1.24 million hectares of bracket waters appropriate to aquaculture, India has high potentials to develop the domestic fishing industry. In 2012, India exported US$3.28 billion of seafood products; in which, crustaceans (HS0306) occupied the largest proportion, followed by frozen fishes (HS0303), mollusks (HSS0307) and frozen fish fillets (HS0304).

Indian government focuses on strengthening seafood production and exports in order to explore the country’s advantages and potentials. The country targeted to be in the top five fishery producing countries in the world. It also wanted to learn Vietnam’s experiences in developing pangasius production.