Pangasius making up large part in frozen fish fillet imports by Peru

With wider economic perspectives, Peruvian market tends to increasingly import fishery products, including pangasius from Vietnam. According to Vietnam Customs, Peru bought US$3.25 million of Vietnamese pangasius in the first half of 2013.

Currently, Vietnam ranks the third among Peru’s seafood suppliers. In 2012, Peru imported US$79.1 million of fishery products (HS code 03) from the world, according to statistics from International Trade Centre (ITC); 14.3 percent of which came from Vietnam, equal to US$11.3 million, up nearly 50 percent against that of 2011.

Over the recent years, Peru showed rising demand for imported frozen fish fillets (HS code 0304) while purchase of fresh fishes (HS code 0302) and frozen fishes (HS code 0303) have been decreasing. In 2012, purchase of frozen fish fillets valued at US$18.67 million, compared to US$14.5 million reported in 2011.

In 2011, Peru sourced these products from 11 countries and territories, but the number went down to 9 markets in 2012. Since 2001, imports of frozen fish fillets have remained two-digit growth; they even got the highest rise of 113 percent and just fell down in 2004.

Since 2008, Vietnam was the leading exporter of frozen fish fillets to Peru and even got the highest growth of 1,008 percent. In 2012, Peru bought 3,580 MT of frozen fish fillets from Vietnam, having a worth of US$11.3 million. So far, Vietnamese products made up 60 percent in Peru’s frozen fish fillet imports.

With total volume of US$5,082 MT (US$18.7 million), imported frozen fish fillets (HS code 0304) occupied the third part in terms of volume in 2012, after frozen fish products (22,924 MT and US$39.6 million) and fresh fish (17.352 MT and US$6.5 million). However, frozen fillets rose 35.77 percent in volume and 28.45 percent in value compared to 2011. In contrast, frozen products saw drop of 19.11 percent in volume and 5.66 percent in value; fresh fish down 4.96 percent in volume and 20.88 percent in value.

Of the group of imported frozen fish fillets, pangasius got the major part in both volume and value. In 2012, Peru spent US$8.5 million on purchasing 2,626 MT of pangasius from Vietnam. It also sourced 708 MT of tilapia valued US$2.652 million from China, Ecuador and Vietnam; in which, 90 percent was Chinese fishes.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that Peruvian economy will remain steady growth of more than 6 percent in 2013 when its domestic consumption demand is increasing as the result of higher income and the growing middle class. In addition, Peru is considered as a gateway for international exporters to introduce products to its surrounding countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and the west region of Brazil. Therefore, many Vietnamese companies are trying to boost exports of seafood and pangasius products to this market.