In July, exports of pangasius to the US slightly increased

By the end of July 2020, Vietnam brought in $133.7 million USD from exporting pangasius to the US, down 20.2% from the same period last year. In July alone, pangasius export value to the US slightly increased by 4.4%.

China, the US and the EU have been the three main destinations of Vietnamese pangasius for the last three years.

In Jan 2020, Vietnam saw a 55.3% decline in pangasius export value to the US, then 67% and 26.3% increase in Feb and Mar 2020, respectively. However, since quarter II when the US became an epicenter of the covid-19 with closure of many restaurants, Vietnam’s pangasius exports to the US have been seriously impacted. The pangasius export value to the US decreased by 20.7%, 52.1% and 31.5% in April, May and June respectively, as compared to the same period last year.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam faced multiple difficulties in exporting pangasius to the US in the first quarter of the year. Especially since March 2020 when the pandemic hit the country, imports and exports have been seriously impacted with a decline in importing prices of frozen pangasius fillet into this market from 3.1 USD/kg (in Jan) to 2.83 USD/kg in March.

In June 2020, importing prices of frozen pangasius fillet into the US continued to drop and stayed around 2.8 USD/kg. In quarter II, only 12 businesses exported pangasius to the US market with three leading companies being BIEN DONG SEAFOOD, VINH HOAN CORP and VD FOOD LTD.

In July 2020, Vietnam saw a slight bounce back of pangasius export value to the US. If the pandemic is well contained, exports of pangasius to this market will recover.