Mr. Vo Hung Dung, deputy chairman of Vietnam Pangasius Association, said that China is a new import market of Vietnamese pangasius with export value having been in up trend.
China accounted for 6.4 percent of Vietnam's pangasius fish export structure in 2014, 10.3 percent in 2015, 17.8 percent in 2016 and 40 percent in 2017.
According to the association, the fish farming area in the Mekong Delta last year increased 14 percent over 2016 to 3,300 hectares. Harvest area was up 7 percent to 3,415 hectares, output up 5 percent to 1.06 million tons a hectare and productivity reached 309 tons a hectare lower than 2016 when it was 313 tons.
Total export turnover hit US$1.75 billion, a year on year increase of 5.5 percent. China raised to become the leading import market of Vietnamese pagasius, followed by the US.
For a long time, Vietnamese businesses have just exported the fish fillet to many markets. Previously, the market mainly imported the whole fish.
Recently, Chinese people have liked dishes processed from pangasius. Hence, Vietnamese firms should prepare to meet the increasing demand of processed products from the fish.
Chairman of the association Vo Hung Dung said that some regions in China want to exchange about pangasius fish processing with businesses in the Mekong Delta.
The association had organized Mekong Chef 2017 to introduce and advertise pangasius fish products through 30 dishes made from the fish by domestic and international chefs.
Singaporean firms have proposed to buy the fish skin to make snack food from Dong Thap based Co May company. Many customers in Singapore and Europe have asked the company to supply the fish skin meeting international food safety standards with attractive prices.
Currently, Co May company exports 50-60 tons of the fish skin a month and supply is short of demand.
