Despite poor planning on behalf of catfish farmers, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers today announced the country's catfish exports are expected to earn $1.2 billion this year, 29 percent of the country's total seafood export value.
Earlier this year, farmers suffered from an excess of supplies and later exporters hesitated to sign new contracts due to concerns about insufficient supply.
VASEP says the current shortage is not serious because producers have been forewarned and farmers have begun to benefit from higher prices and have resumed their investment in production. However, the existing shortage is expected to last until the first quarter of 2009.
In order to reach the catfish industry's $1.5 billion export value goal, 1.2 million metric tons of catfish are needed to produce 600,000 metric tons of fillets.
