Fish farmers in Vietnam harvested 598,735 metric tons (MT) of pangasius in the first seven months of this year, a slight decrease on the volume produced in the same period last year. However, the total area dedicated to pangasius production has been increased during this period with a view to boosting year-end exports.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) estimated the pangasius farming area in the Mekong Delta for January through July 2015 was 6,046 hectares, an increase of 2 percent year-on-year.
In the first half of this year, pangasius production was affected by a decline in export volumes and unstable prices, said the Southeast Asian country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). Farmers were also discouraged from producing too many fish because of prolonged high temperatures, which created health challenges among some stocks.
For the year through May 2015, Vietnamese pangasius exports totaled USD 616 million (EUR 564.9 million), down 9.6 percent year-on-year. The United States was the main market during this period, accounting for 21.8 percent of the trade by buying USD 134.6 million (EUR 123.4 million) worth of the product, up 6.4 percent year-on-year. In second place, the EU spent USD 119 million (EUR 109.1 million), down 15.6 percent, accounting for 19.3 percent of the trade.
In 2014, Vietnam produced 1 million MT of pangasius and exported USD 1.76 billion (EUR 1.61 billion) worth of the fish worldwide, an increase of 0.4 percent on the previous year.
