Vietnam's pangasius accounts 99.9% of global market share

Vietnamese pangasius products currently accounts for 99.9% world market share, according to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters & Producers (VASEP) vice president Nguyen Huu Dung.

According to the plan of the Ministry of Rural and Agriculture Development (MARD), until 2010, the pangasius farming area is expected to reach 13,000 hectares with the volume of two million tonnes, valued at US$2 billion.

It expected that this position will have been kept in many years. Scientists said Vietnam is able to increase the farming area into 2 or 3 times but water treatment and management must be done well.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese tra and basa fish producers and exporters from the Mekong city of Can Tho have rejected USDA's plan to name the products as catfish, which brings them into the product list under the supervision of the Farm Bill.

The Farm Bill Vietnamese tra and basa fish to be exported to the US market must be raised in line with the standards applied to catfish bred in the north-eastern region of the US.

If the US decides to list Vietnamese tra and basa fish as products to be monitored by the Farm Bill, domestic fish breeders will incur higher production costs and lose competitiveness, said Ngo Phuoc Hau, chairman of the An Giang Fisheries Export-Import Company.

Vietnamese tra and basa fish have been exported to 130 countries worldwide. Last year, Vietnam earned US$1.34 billion from the export of these products.