May 24, 2011

Vietnam to increase tra fish export price floor

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said it plans to increase the tra fish export price floor by adding another US$0.2 per kg in the next quarter of the year, given a possible shortage of fish after the harvest season.

Duong Ngoc Minh, vice President of VASEP said that the new export price floor would apply to key markets including the US and Europe. "The association will increase the lowest export price for the US market to US$4.4 per kg from the current US$4.2 per kg and to US$3.6 per kg from the current US$3.4 per kg with exports to European countries," Minh said.

The price of unprocessed tra fish in An Giang Province last week dropped slightly from the previous week to VND28,500 (US$1.37) per kg.

According to Nguyen Van Ky, general director of An Giang Fisheries Import and Export Joint Stock Company (Agifish), a large tra fish exporter in the southern province, tra fish export price averages at US$3.4 per kg or US$0.2 higher than the price floor announced by VASEP in its first quarter meeting held in April 27 in Ho Chi Minh City and that exporters can still hope for the price to rise. "Importers are accepting the fact that we are dealing with high input costs and rising materials prices, getting the deal done easier for us," he said.

Agifish is an exception among listed tra fish exporting companies that had positive earnings in the first quarter of the year for having stockpiled a few thousand tonnes of tra fish at the end of last year, when raw fish price was only VND22,000 (US$1.06) per kg. The price of raw fish hit VND29,000 (US$1.4) per kg in April and dropped slightly last week.

Other exporters, like Navico, another listed firm also based in An Giang Province, have been hit by the materials shortage and high prices. Navico has announced a decrease by 30% in net sales from the same period last year to VND255 billion (US$12.3 million), due to the huge drop in export volume at 50% over last year.

Materials shortage has caused a drop in the estimated tra fish export volume this year to around 360,000 tonnes from last year's more than 600,000 tonnes, according to VASEP.

According to Vietnam Customs, the country had exported a total of 159,000 tonnes of tra in the year to April 15, earning US$440 million, up 6.2% in volume and 23% in value from the same period last year.