Vietnam battles share for US catfish market
Vietnam's tra and basa (catfish) exporters are putting up a good fight in the US catfish market as sales have been steadily increasing but American catfish producers are applying much pressure by demanding political protection.
Under the 2001 US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), Vietnam's exporters are forbidden to market tra and ca basa as 'catfish' in the US, despite the two species being members of the same fish family and tasting very much like American catfish. Vietnam sees this as a blatant effort to prevent penetration of the US market.
Vietnamese producers then also had to spend a lot of money and effort to market the fish products under the new names and persuade US consumers that Vietnamese 'tra' and 'basa' are high quality, delicious taste and competitive in price.
The US industry also filed an anti-dumping suit against the Vietnamese industry, accusing the exporters of selling fish products on the US market for less than their fair cost of production.
But the Vietnamese catfish sector has now been successful in overturning the charges and the antidumping tariffs have been reduced to zero.
However, Vietnam expressed concern on the Farm Bill that requires strict regulation of catfish products, following last year's controversy over excessive antibiotics and chemicals found in catfish imports from China.
Now, the US Department of Agriculture has proposed to update its regulations to include Vietnam's tra and basa in its list of "catfish" subject to rigorous inspection procedures.
The US Congress has bowed to pressure from the American producers and extended the case for another five years, hence, another anti-dumping" determination by the Department of Commerce. It seems unlikely, however, that Vietnam will be found to be selling basa and tra below their cost of production, the industry says.
Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) statistics show that in the first quarter of 2009 alone, Vietnam exported US$22 million worth of tra and basa to the US, an increase of 93.4 per cent in comparison with the same period of 2008.
