The value of Vietnam's tra fish export turnover in 2018 reached US $ 2.26 billion, up 26.4% compared to 2017.
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the above high growth rate comes from the increase in tra fish prices, thus, many businesses invest in processing high value-added tra fish products, pushing export price and tra fish export value goes up. Forecast, tra fish export turnover may still remain the value of US $ 2.2 billion in 2019.
Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam, Deputy Secretary General of VASEP said that in order to get this achievement, Vietnam has to experience many years of branding, improving quality and processing, etc. and currently, Vietnam is in the group of 5 largest countries supplying seafood in the world.
According to economic experts, the US-China trade war has affected many economies, including Vietnam, but has had a positive impact on some export goods. Therefore, in 2019, tra fish is one of the industries that gets the most benefit from the increasing demand in China and trade barriers in the US.
Many economic experts also said that when the EVFTA was signed and enforced, the import tax on tra fish to the European Union would be reduced from 5.5% to 0% in 3 years (with raw tra fish), from 7% to 0% in 7 years (with processed tra fish). This is a great opportunity for tra fish exporters to boost their output and value of this goods.
Regarding improving the quality of export tra fish, Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, Deputy Director of the Directorate of Fisheries said, the Directorate of Fisheries is working with enterprises to build high quality tra fish fillet, to research and supplement the content of nutrients, to improve the quality of tra fish fillet, improve processing technology process, to export tra fish fillet products with better quality. In addition, we also have research on breeding and replacing broodstock to improve productivity, quality, an traceability while improving value-added processed products, taking advantage of the byproducts of processing to produce value-added products.
However, in the coming years, there are still challenges that tra fish industry has to face, including programs on import control in Europe and the US. Businesses will continue to work with the State to overcome it. It means that the competitiveness of Vietnamese tra fish will be improved.
Thu Hoan