Vietnam strengthening pangasius production and consumption effectively and sustainably

According to MARD’s plan, pangasius farming area in the region will be expanded to 7,260 hectares under VietGAP, mainly located in the provinces of An Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh, Hau Giang which have favorable natural conditions and clean water sources for fish farming. The provinces of Can Tho, An Giang, Dong Thap will farm most with the area of 4,230 hectares. The Mekong Delta is striving to reach a fish output of 1.6 million MT and a revenue of US$2.5-3 billion from exporting this product by 2020, creating jobs for 29,000 workers. The local pangasius sector also set the goal of producing 750,000 – 800,000 MT of finished products in which value added products account for 15 – 20 percent. 

By 2015, the region will expand further 5,270 superficies annually for fish farming and aims to reach the output of 1.2 million MT, process 650,000 – 700,000 MT of finished products per annum in which value-added products made up 8 – 12 percent. The locality sets a target of US$2 – 2.3 billion in pangasius export turnover, creating jobs for 21,000 workers.   

328 facilities producing fish seed and fries will be built on the area of 2,500 hectares, mostly in the provinces of Dong Thap, An Giang, Ben Tre, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Hau Giang, Tien Giang, Soc Trang, Tra Vinh. By 2015, these facilities are projected to supply 1.9 billion high-quality fish seeds and 2.5 billion ones by 2020.

To achieve the targets, the region has worked out plans to invest in infrastructure at farming areas, upgrade fish hatcheries and high-quality seed producing units, improve the process of producing seed free with diseases. Besides, the locality intensifies to transfer technologies in producing new value-added products to meet demand from domestic and foreign customers, develop sustainable supply chain of fish farming, purchasing, processing and consuming.

The Mekong Delta is now home to 94 pangasius processing plants with a total capacity of nearly 1 million MT per year. Instead of building more frozen fish fillet processing plants by 2020, the delta focuses on upgrading current ones to raise their processing capacity of value-added products.

During the 2014-15 period, local existing factories will strengthen renovating their production lines in order to improve the quality of products as well as reduce production cost. Meanwhile, in the 2016-20 period, they will install modern production lines of processing value-added products with the capacity of 45,000 MT per year. Besides, they will apply new technologies to produce pangasius by-products into small packs for instant use or pharmaceutical or cosmetic products that aim to meet the demand of both domestic and foreign costumers.

To expand foreign markets for pangasius, ministries, authorities and Mekong Delta provinces will work out trade protection measures adaptable to commercial disputes and international technical barriers, especially in the U.S. and European Union markets. Moreover, Vietnamese side should understand the U.S.’s regulations and harmonize VietGAP with standards applied by US catfish farms.

Furthermore, the Mekong Delta provinces should promote the image of Vietnamese pangasius and expand the distribution centers or auction platforms to facilitate trading fish in EU and avoid anti-dumping activities while strengthening trade promotion, expanding pangasius exports to potential markets such as Russia, China, Mexico, Middle East, India and ASEAN.

The provinces will also change the way of export by boosting direct export to distribution systems, and major shopping centers and supermarkets in order to reduce intermediary stages.