August 2, 2012
Vietnam's Mekong Delta's pangasius fish prices increase
Due to the government's soft loan packages and raising imports, prices of pangasius fish in Vietnam's Mekong Delta region have increased.
In An Giang province, pangasius fish is offered at VND25,000 (US$1.20) per kilogramme, up VND1,000-1,500 (US$0.05-0.07) per kilogramme, the Saigon Times newspaper said.
In other provinces in the delta, prices of the fish increased to between VND20,000-22,000 (US$1) per kilogramme.
Earlier this month, the government agreed to provide a soft loan package of VND9 trillion (US$430 million) to support pangasius fish raisers, processors and exporters to boost the fish export. Local banks, assigned to carry out the programme, will provide four-month loans with annual interest rate of 11.4% to farmers and firms.
Farmers of the Mekong Delta region are cultivating 6,031 hectares of the fish and already harvested 635,400 tonnes. It is estimated that they will produce additionally 800,000 tonnes of the fish by end-2012.
Prices of pangasius fish have decreased below the production costs of VND23,800-24,200 (US$1.14-1.16) per kilogramme due to larger output of pangasius fish material amid export fall to main markets and financial shortage of processors and exporters.
Pangasius fish is a Vietnamese key export commodity. In 2012, the country targets to earn US$2 billion from shipping pangasius fish abroad, up from US$1.8 billion in 2011.