Speaking at a conference hosted by the ministry in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on February 25, Can said new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam is a member have brought opportunities for Vietnam to promote tra fish exports to the EU and US markets.
However, trade barriers and increasingly strict regulations in import markets require Vietnam’s tra fish exporters to make changes to their operations, he noted.
According to To Thi Tuong Lan, deputy general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VSEP), prices of tra fish are forecast to increase by 5 percent this year compared to 2021.
Meanwhile, good recovery has been seen in China, the US, member nations of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and the European Union (EU), which are the biggest importers of Vietnamese tra fish, with respective growth rates of 31 percent, 23 percent, 13 percent and 6.6 percent.
Prices of tra fish have increased very high since early this year, bringing an opportunity for farmers and businesses to continue to expand production.
Lan, however, said that the aquaculture industry needs to build appropriate orientations for tra fish farming to ensure a balance between supply and demand, and a stability of price and profit.
At the event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien requested the Directorate of Fisheries to build projects and set tasks in order to improve the quality of young tra fish serving commercial farming.
Seafood processing enterprises should also pay special heed to developing linkages with farming areas, and keeping a close watch on market situations, thus being ready to seize opportunities, Tien said.
Last year, there were over 5,850 ha of Tra fish farming in the Mekong Delta, up 10 percent from 2020, with total output of 1.52 million tonnes, an increase of 1.63 percent.
