Vietnamese farmers turned off of tilapia

Increasing numbers (though still small) of Vietnamese farmers had been trying their hand at tilapia farming, though that has all but halted this year, two sources told Undercurrent News.

“Tilapia production was on the way up, but this year the prices are not so great,” said Chen Chien Pin with Simmy Seafood. “Processors need to do value-added for it to be worth it.”

As many as six tilapia processors in China — the main producer of the species — have been forced to close recently, as they face a perfect storm of further declines in US imports, fillet prices hitting ten-year lows, greater trading risks, a rise in tilapia farmgate prices, and less generous export subsidies from local governments.

A second source, an executive with a pangasius producer, noted that usually tilapia earns a slightly higher price than pangasius on the US market, but that recently it had fallen to around $1.60 per pound — compared to pushing $2/lb now for pangasius.