Le Van Quang, general director of Minh Phu Seafood Corporation and vice chairman of VASEP, said shrimp shipments might fall by as much as 30 percent from 2008 levels and catfish are facing additional technical barriers in the Russian market, effective last month.

 

VASEP said the economic recession would also affect shrimp and catfish breeders, which will lead to few raw materials for export processing. Many shrimp and catfish breeding operations have shut down due to difficult financing, resulting in reduced operations to about 60 percent of capacity.

 

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat has urged seafood enterprises to improve their competitiveness and enhance trade promotion efforts, adding that his ministry would work with foreign trade partners to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese seafood.

 

VASEP has also submitted to the government some proposals on past due loans made to breeders.

 

Minh Phu General Director Le Van Quang has urged the Government for a zero tariff on shrimp feed imports and delay scheduled increases in electricity rates and coal prices.

 

Ngo Phuoc Hau, chairman of the VASEP Freshwater Fish Committee (VFFC), urged catfish breeders to increase co-operative efforts in purchasing raw materials.

 

Vietnamese tra catfish is becoming increasingly popular in the UK where consumers, as the economic downturn have prompted consumers to turn to cheaper fish varieties, according to the Belfast Telegraph.

 

The British newspaper on Monday quoted the UK's leading retail chain Tesco as saying Vietnamese river cobbler [tra catfish] is now outselling plaice, lemon sole, and sea bass, mainly through word of mouth.

 

In the last six months, sales of Vietnamese catfish have skyrocketed to 60 percent, making it one of the fastest growing fish varieties in the UK and a rival to many established British favourites.

 

According to Tesco's fish buyer Sam Pearl, the Vietnamese river cobbler is great value as it costs about half as much Compared to other quality white fish such as plaice, sea bass and lemon sole .