Tra fish farmers suffer losses despite price rise

18/02/2016 12:00 - 696 Views

HCMC - Although prices of unprocessed tra fish, or Pangasius, in the Mekong Delta are bouncing back after having dropped to new lows, farmers are still racking up heavy losses as the selling price is far below production cost.

According to tra fish farmers in key tra farming provinces in the Mekong Delta, unprocessed tra fish is sold at around VND18,800-19,900 a kilo, rising by VND800-1,300 compared to early this month.

The An Giang Fishery Association (AFA) said unprocessed tra is priced at VND19,100-19,900 a kilo for white-meat fish and VND18,800-19,700 for yellow-meat fish, up VND800-1,300 over early February.

However, the prices are VND4,500-5,500 a kilo lower than in the same period last year.

Tran Hieu Trung, a fish farmer in Can Tho City, calculated that losses would total around VND3,000-4,000 for one kilo of tra fish after all investment costs are deducted.

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, chairman of the Thoi An Trafish Co-operative in Can Tho City, said the U.S. anti-dumping duty and new requirements of Farm Bill for tra fish imports have affected tra prices in Vietnam.

Vietnamese tra fish exporters have faced more difficulties as the currencies of many tra fish importing countries like China and Europe depreciated against the U.S. dollar last year.

Source: The SaigonTimes