Which key helps sustainable catfish exports?

Catfish export has continuously grown strongly in the last 3 years and is expected to continue collecting "sweet fruits" in 2019. In order for this industry to develop sustainably, improving quality and efforts to maintain and expand export markets are key factors.

Catfish export targets more than 2.4 billion USD in 2019 Photo: Nguyen Thanh

Good start

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), by the end of February, the country's seafood export volume reached about 1.13 billion USD, up 4% compared to the same period of 2018. In which, exporting fish reached 284 million USD, an increase of 8% compared to the same period of 2018. Mr. Doan Toi - Chairman and CEO of Nam Viet Joint Stock Company also acknowledged, with the current momentum, likely in 2019, fish will continue to maintain high prices, be beneficial for farmers and export enterprises.

According to the General Department of Fisheries (MARD), in 2019, despite the technical barriers and trade barriers in some importing countries, there are no signs of the decline in catfish consumption market. Industry prospects are quite solid. Representative of the General Department of Fisheries analyzed: The US-China trade war is a good opportunity for Vietnamese enterprises to dominate the market share of white meat fish in the US due to the temporary shortage of tilapia at the present time. For China, China's border management policy changes flexibly depending on the moment with the aim of limiting and maintaining the volume of goods imported from Vietnam in the direction that is most beneficial for the Chinese side. This makes Vietnamese enterprises often passive. However, Chinese regulations on product quality control and traceability when exporting to China are creating opportunities for sustainable development of this important market.

According to Vietnam Catfish Association, besides the favorable factors, in 2019, catfish export has faced many challenges such as: Technical barriers and trade protection from import markets; production cost of catfish material is still high; smear communication campaigns in some seafood markets... In addition, with the growth rate of the Chinese market in the past 3 years (with an average growth rate of about 6% / year) , forecast demand for raw fish production may increase to 2 million tons after 3-4 years. The increase in raw material output in the coming time poses problems to ensure product quality, reasonable price, and also concerns about environmental issues in production, planning farming areas...

Improve quality, open markets

In 2019, the whole fisheries sector set a target of catfish production of 1.51 million tons, up 6.6% compared to 2018; export turnover reached over 2.4 billion USD, up 12% compared to 2018.

According to Mr. To, in order to develop the catfish industry in a sustainable way, it is not necessary to expand too much in area and output, but there is the need to focus on improving quality and expanding markets... In this regard, Vietnam Catfish Association provides a more thorough analysis. Specifically, with the promotion of improving the quality of catfish industry, the focus is on improving the quality of breeds, the quality of catfish material at the farming stage associated with improving the quality of the environment. In addition, it is necessary to focus on developing available markets, especially in the US, EU, China and ASEAN markets with a market share of 50-60%. "Vietnam Catfish Association recommends MARD to consider supporting trade promotions in domestic and foreign markets for the catfish industry as an organization participating in many activities to build price news and catfish farming area map. Organize seminars for connecting businesses to expand the US, EU... markets, especially the Chinese market in the provinces of Zhanjiang, Sichuan, and cities such as Fangchenggang, Shanghai and Qingdao...” the representative of Vietnam Catfish Association stressed.

From a local perspective, Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development analyzed: Catfish has an absolute competitive advantage, large market demand and mainly for exports. Therefore, the Department recommends instead of managing by planning, area, output, MARD should tighten management of breeds, breeding conditions, and discharge...; at the same time, it is necessary to have policies to ensure that 100% of the farming areas must participate in the chain and have policies to support processing enterprises to diversify products and deep processing... In this regard, according to the Department's opinion Agriculture and Rural Development of Vinh Long, MARD should issue more uniform, strict and specific regulations to manage the quality and conditions of catfish seed production.

According to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong, catfish industry has been growing continuously in the last 3 years; the risk of disease outbreak is quite high, while the quality of breeds has not been improved, and there is still a small number of establishments that have not participated in the link chain. In this context, localities in the Mekong Delta need to assess the current status of chain linkages in the locality, have solutions to mobilize and guide people and enterprises to join the chain; good control of planning, no spontaneous increase of nursery area over control. Besides, businesses need to quickly approach and apply the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution to improve competitiveness and value for products. Breeding plays an important role in determining production efficiency. Therefore, localities and enterprises should continue to focus on implementing solutions to improve the quality of catfish breeds in the direction of the State and the people together... Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong assigns the General Department of Fisheries to coordinate with units to implement well the project of national catfish products, strengthen the quality inspection of input materials...