Pangasius companies from Vietnam are actively seeking partners in China, which is showing a rapidly increasing appetite for the Vietnamese products.
Exports of pangasius to China rose 42 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, Vietnam’s Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said in a statement on 2 April. VASEP did provide a total volume of first-quarter pangasius exports.
At a seminar in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta city of Can Tho on 18 April, several Vietnamese seafood processors and Chinese companies from Zhanjiang discussed demand trends in China and ways to protect the image of Vietnam’s pangasius products.
Zhanjiang, located in Guangdong Province, is close to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian nations. It is on track to become China’s seafood trading hub, particularly since the signing of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement in 2010.
Seeking to cash in on that profile, the Vietnam Pangasius Association (VPA) has sent an invitation to local pangasius exporters, asking them to attend the fifth China International Aquatic Products Exposition to be held in Zhanjiang from 18 to 20 June.
At the expo, the VPA, in cooperation with the event organizer, will set up meetings between the Vietnamese exporters and large seafood trading companies in Zhanjiang, which have their own processing plants and distribution channels in the city and across China.
There will also be meetings where Vietnamese companies can ask local officials, customs, and quarantine officers about Chinese rules for Vietnamese seafood exported to China, VPA said.
Participating Vietnamese firms will be exempt from exhibition costs.
Zhanjiang is well-known for its shrimp trading. But with huge seafood demand from China, companies from the city are willing to import all major high-quality seafood products from Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, VPA said.
Photo courtesy of VASEP
