April 18, 2006

Catfish farmers in Vietnam hit by falling profits

Profits for catfish farmers have been halved after their move away from US markets to European markets, according to studies by researchers from Can Tho University and Scotland's Stirling University.

Profits for exported catfish filet from three southern provinces also dropped by 60 percent from US$180/ tonne to US$112/ tonne.

Vietnamese exporters shifted from the US markets to the EU and South-East Asia's market after US alleged the overuse of chemicals in raising the catfish.

Producers are trying to make up for falling profits by exporting in greater volumes than before.

In An Giang Province, catfish output to the US dropped from 5,000 tonnes in 2003 to 274 tonnes in 2005.  However, exports to EU increased ten times from 2,600 tonnes in 2003 to 27,000 tonnes in 2005 for the EU market, and from 224 to 20,000 tonnes for South-East Asia.

Total annual processing capacity for the three provinces in the study is nearly 200,000 tonnes. Analysts have said that in the coming year, capacity is expected to increase while export growth is expected to be slower than previous periods.