April 12, 2012

Mekong Delta's pangasius fish processing plants to face input material shortage

Amidst decreasing local supply, Mekong Delta's pangasius fish processing plants will face serious shortage of input material in the coming months, state media reported.

Low profit has discouraged local farmers to continue raising the fish and prompted many of them to switch to other farming, the newspaper said.

Currently pangasius fish is offered at VND23,000-23,500 (US$1.11-1.13) per kilogramme, the newspaper said, adding the prices below the production costs with VND500-1,000 (US$0.02-0.05) per kilogramme.

Meanwhile, pangasius fish exporters export their products to EU at US$3-3.1 per kilogramme. With this export prices, processing plants will earn large profits, said experts.

The remaining volume of pangasius fish is estimated at 200,000 tonnes in the Mekong Delta. Pangasius fish is one of key export products of Vietnam. Last year, the country exported around 600,000 tonnes of the fish worth US$1.8 billion.