July 29, 2011

Pangasius fish feed price hikes hurt Vietnam's Mekong Delta farmers

Pangasius fish raisers of Vietnam are facing difficulties when feed prices have sharply increased for months, according to local news Thursday (Jul 28).

The prices of pangasius fish feed rose between 30% and 40% from the same period last year, reports stated, adding that the prices increased over 10% so far this year.

The feed containing 28% of protein is offered at VND12,000/kg (US$0.58), up 35% from a year earlier.

State agencies have ignored to control feed price increase, which seriously hurt pangasius farmers in Mekong Delta, said Nguyen Viet Thang, president of Vietnam Fisheries Association, adding the prices of materials for feed production fell in the world market.

Due to high price of feed, the production costs of pangasius fish jump to VND24,000 (US$1.17) per kg, forcing small-scale farmers giving up their business and switch to other jobs.

Pangasius fish is one of the country's export staples which bring in a lot of US dollar for Vietnam. In the first half of this year, the country shipped fish products abroad worth US$828 million, up 4.9% on-year.