Tra fish, one of Vietnam’s major seafood exports, has increased the anxieties of its breeders because of sudden fall in its price. The Tra fish industry feared to incur heavy losses during this year’s fishing season if it does not find a long-term solution. To help the breeders the State Bank of Vietnam has recently asked commercial banks to continue providing capital for businesses to purchase the fish and extend the deadline for loan repayments.
Le Van Tho, director of the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (Agribank) branch in Can Tho City opined that the bank is finding it difficult to meet the demand from businesses and breeders for capital due to capital shortages and will only provide loans to businesses that have established credit relations with the bank.
Ngo Phuoc Hau, general director of the An Giang Seafood Import-Export Company (Agifish) said that if the State provides more financial assistance, we will buy up the older fish in July. VASEP vice president Nguyen Huu Dung says that Vietnam has yet to develop a professional marketing programme for Tra fish.
Acording to Dung the breeding and processing of Tra fish in Vietnam has so far developed in a haphazard fashion in the Mekong River delta. He added that farmers have dug ponds while businesses have built export processing plants themselves without any planning in advance or professional management skills. The impact is that the Tra fish prices have fluctuated unexpectedly, causing losses to both farmers and export businesses.
The government needs to tighten the management of the Tra fish farming and processing industry to stabilise the market price of this species of fish. There should be increase of quality of Tra fish for export and good promotion in international market.
