October 25, 2012

Vietnamese tra fish companies urge to follow hygiene, registration rules

In order to guarantee quality and improve management of the industry, Vietnamese tra fish firms should follow stricter hygiene and registration conditions.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, under a draft decree presented to the Government, producers and companies who farm, process or export tra fish would only receive business licences if they obey food safety and hygiene requirements, clearly define food origins and protect the environment.

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam said that under the decree, producers would have their business licences revoked if they failed to meet the conditions. The draft aimed to crackdown on the "spontaneous" appearance of tra fish production companies, which were causing difficulties in balancing supply and demand, he said.

If approved, the decree could be a catalyst to reform regulations for tra fish exports to international markets, Tam said. Only producers who met the conditions would receive loans from the State Budget, he said. The proposed new mechanism would fit in with World Trade Organisation's requirements, he said. It would also regulate the mechanisms for export contracts, floor prices of materials and production cost, he said. And it would help avoid barriers being put in place against tra fish from Viet Nam, he added.

Duong Nghia Quoc, director of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said the Mekong Delta's Dong Thap Province had around 1,500 hectares of tra fish farms and tra fish exports accounted for up to 75% of the total export turnover of the province.

It was therefore necessary to remove overlapping and other obstacles to the sector's management, he said. Meanwhile, deputy head of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Nguyen Huu Dung, said domestic export companies were competing against each other on selling price.

He said the export price was US$2.80 per kilogramme three years ago compared to US$1.80 per kilogramme now because companies had undercut each other. Also, there needed to be more coordination among tra fish farmers, processors, and exporters, he said.

The nation's tra fish exports totalled US$1.8 billion last year, equal to 2% of gross domestic product (GDP). Statistics show 290 tra fish processing companies had a combined capacity of two million tonnes of tra fish each year.