Strong EU demand for tra fish with low ice ratio

Tra fish fillets on a processing line of a company in the Mekong Delta. The European Union market’s demand for tra fish (pangasius) products with the ice-to-fish ratio of 10% or less has improved - PHOTO: TRUNG CHANH

HCMC – The European Union market’s demand for tra fish (pangasius) products with the ice-to-fish ratio of 10% or less has improved even though their prices are higher than tra fillets with 20% ice.

Data of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) shows the country shipped around US$72 million of tra fish to the EU in January-May, a 28% decrease compared to the same period last year.

The fall mainly resulted from poor demand for tra fish fillets with a ratio of ice to fish of 20%. Tra fish products with 0-10% ice were selling well in the EU market and their prices ranged from US$3.07 to US$3.95 per kilo in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, prices of products with the ice-to-fish ratio of 20% were US$1.2 to US$1.75 per kilo in Hungary, France and Italy.

The Government’s Decree 36/2014/ND-CP issued in 2014 sets the maximum ice and moisture ratios of 10% and 83% respectively in the net weight of frozen tra fish fillets for export.

Local enterprises said the decree would make life difficult for them and proposed raising the ice-to-fish ratio to 20%.

More than two years later, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development issued Circular 07/2017/TT-BNNPTNT on national standards for frozen tra fish fillets and seafood, with effect from May 5 this year. The circular caps the ratios of ice and moisture at 20% and 86% respectively.

But products with an ice-to-fish ratio of less than 10% were in high demand in the five-month period. Therefore, VASEP urged exporters to reduce ice content in tra fish products and diversify their product portfolios to improve outbound sales.