The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development yesterday announced that pangasius export turnover in the first seven months of 2022 reached more than US$1.52 billion, up 79.8 percent over the same period in 2021.
According to the report, Vietnam’s export turnover is forecast to exceed US$2.26 billion. Pangasius export is one of the export areas that brings home over one billion US dollars.
According to seafood processing enterprises in the Mekong Delta, the average export price of frozen pangasius fillets to the Chinese market in the first seven months of the year fluctuated around $2.45 per kilogram, up 37 percent over the same period last year while it is being sold to the US market at about $4.66 per kilogram, up 66 percent over the same period last year.
Thanks to high export, from February to May 2022, businesses purchased pangasius in the Mekong Delta at a relatively high price, averaging more than VND30,000 per kilogram; accordingly, fish breeders can enjoy a profit of about VND5,000 per kilogram. From June to now, the price of pangasius fluctuates around VND27,500-VND28,500 per kilogram, VND7,000-VND8,000 higher than that in the same period in 2021.
In the last months of 2022 and early 2023, the demand for pangasius is forecast not to be as high as in the first months of 2022. However, fish sale is still promising in some large markets such as the United States, the EU, China, and Russia.
It is forecast that the EU market is likely to lack raw white fish in the context of complicated geopolitics in Eastern Europe and rising inflation, creating opportunities for Vietnamese pangasius exports by the end of 2022.
American catfish farmers might face difficulties due to prolonged hot weather, and high feed and fuel costs, affecting profits and the domestic supply of catfish in the United States. After nearly three years of being affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, China is predicted to maintain imports as that in 2021, even though Chinese businesses are negotiating prices to import more Cambodian pangasius.
SGGP
