VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese exporters continue to sell catfish at low prices to maintain their edge as the world's top catfish exporter. 

Nguyen Viet Thang, chair of the Vietnam Pangasius Association, said Vietnam has over 6,000 hectares of water surface reserved for catfish farming which can yield 1 million tons a year. The catfish export turnover once reached $1.8 billion.

The catfish export price has decreased over the last decade, from $4 per kilo in 2003 to $2.5 per kilo, which led to a decrease in export turnover to $1.56 billion in 2015.

Thang pointed out that the catfish price has been decreasing because Vietnamese exporters have lowered selling prices to scramble for clients.

Vietnamese exporters continue to sell catfish at low prices to maintain their edge as the world's top catfish exporter.

“Export companies have many times promised not to dump catfish in the world market, but they later broke their promises,” he said.

Le Van Quang, chair of Minh Phu Seafood JSC, dubbed ‘King of Shrimp’, said a foreign businessman told him that Vietnamese sell catfish as if they are throwing gold in the ocean.

“He told me that Vietnam’s catfish is very delicious and favored by American and European consumers. They will buy Vietnam’s catfish even though they have to pay $10 per kilo. Vietnam can sell at $3 per kilo only,” Quang said.

According to Quang, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) in the past set up the export floor price and told exporters not to sell at prices below the floor price. 

Exporters accepted the floor price, but gave tens of cents back to importers as ‘commission’.

“A foreign import company said it thought it was lucky enough buying catfish at $4 per kilo. But when the ship was still on the way, it heard that another importer could buy at $3.8 per kilo,” Quang said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Huu Dung, former deputy chair of VASEP, said the problem lies in the quality of exports.

“I know some businesses which export high-quality products with very low water content and they can sell catfish fillet at $5 per kilo to British importers,” he said.

Meanwhile, the prices of smoked basa fillet products will be different from frozen fillets. Japanese do not buy frozen fillets, but they buy smoked fillets.

Thang from the Vietnam Pangasius Association said the association has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to allow it to publicize the names of the member companies which do not follow commitments to help the industry develop in a sustainable way.

Tien Phong