Vietnam's pangasius exports in the past 9 months reached 1.46 billion USD, up 8% over the same period last year.
Pangasius export strong growth
Processed Pangasius In the past 9 months, there was a strong increase of 42%, frozen whole pangasius increased by 24%. Most markets recorded quite positive growth such as the United States, Brazil, and Thailand.
Notably, Mexico continues to lead the CPTPP market in consuming Vietnamese pangasius with 55 million USD, up 19% over the same period last year.
According to VASEP's forecast, pangasius exports in the fourth quarter will continue to be positive due to increased demand during the year-end holidays.
Pangasius breeders maintain production
Despite the positive signs, the pangasius industry is still facing many challenges. These include uneven distribution of farming areas, unsynchronized infrastructure, increasing input costs while selling prices are low. This leads to losses for both meat and fingerling farmers.
If at the beginning of the year, 30-fish/kg of pangasius fingerlings were sold for about 42,000 VND, now pond owners can only sell them for 27,000 VND. What is worrying is that while the price of meat fish shows signs of recovery, the price of fingerlings is continuously decreasing, without any pattern.
In recent days, the price of pangasius meat in the Mekong Delta has been purchased by traders at 27,000 - 28,000 VND/kg, equal to the price of fingerlings. This is considered a paradox, because fingerling production faces many difficulties, with a high loss rate, up to 50% in some places. It is even more difficult when the feed conversion ratio is increasing, pushing the cost of 1kg of fingerlings up to 32,000, even 35,000 VND/kg.
In areas specializing in seed production such as Thap Muoi, Hong Ngu of Dong Thap or in areas specializing in fish farming in O Mon, Thot Not of Can Tho City or An Giang, Tien Giang... the number of households still sticking to the profession is now not many.
Most of them switched to growing other crops or animals or left their ponds empty, waiting for the market to recover. Because with this industry, the more you pursue it during difficult times, the more debt you will accumulate.
Solutions for developing pangasius breed
In the current context, improving the quality of pangasius breeds is an inevitable requirement. This is also the main topic of the "Conference to discuss solutions for developing pangasius breeds to cope with climate change and international trade barriers" recently held by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Dong Thap province.
According to data released at the conference, there are currently 1,920 facilities producing and raising pangasius fry nationwide, but only two have been certified by the Department of Fisheries. In 2024, the number of facilities ceasing operations is quite large, accounting for about 1/5 of the total number of facilities. It is worrying that no facility has registered, implemented and been granted a disease safety certificate. Only 18 facilities have declared conformity according to regulations.
Mr. Duong Nghia Quoc - Chairman of the Vietnam Pangasius Association said: "Currently, the demand for breeds is very urgent. The quality of breeds is currently facing many problems. The rate of fry turning into fingerlings is very low, only about 6 to 7%. How can we improve the quality?"
"Through research, it can be seen that when applying science and technology, the survival rate can be increased by 20% in the entire process of raising fish fry into fingerlings. After this conference, we will transfer technology to help the pangasius industry increase the survival rate during the rearing process and trace the origin," said Mr. Tran Dinh Luan - Director of the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In addition to applying technology to increase survival rate in the seed production process, delegates also said that good seed is the decisive factor to have perfect, disease-free pangasius fish from the pond to export. To achieve that, the agricultural sector first of all requested that localities strictly manage pangasius seed production facilities.
Mr. Phung Duc Tien - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development emphasized: "Breed determines the productivity and quality of agricultural products in general and tra fish in particular. This is an issue that the Ministry has assigned to the units. Management must be tightened. Only qualified establishments will be licensed."
According to the leaders of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure in a systematic way for fish breeding areas and commercial farming areas. In addition, the implementation of the 3-level pangasius project in the Mekong Delta must be synchronous and effective to meet the demand for high-quality fish fry, stabilizing supply and demand for fish fry production.
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