Tra fish prices at highest level in last 20 years

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With the price at 27,000 - 29,000 VND (1.2 – 1.3 USD) a kilo last month, farmers earned a profit of 4,000 – 6,000 VND a kilo, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Directorate of Fisheries.

In previous years, tra fish farmers faced low prices and sales.

Farmers harvest tra fish in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho. (Photo: VNA)

However, last year, farmers made a good profit because of the high price and many sales, according to a representative of the Chau Thanh district Tra Fish Breeding Co-operative in Dong Thap province.

The price of tra fish often falls in December because exporters normally complete their export contracts during that month.

Ho Kim Thoa, a tra fish farmer in Dong Thap province’s Hong Ngu district, said this was the first time the price of tra fish had increased in December.

The price of tra fish is expected to remain high because the output in the Delta has not increased much and exports will continue to be strong.

Farmer Huynh Quang Khap in An Giang province’s Chau Phu district said he had sold two ponds worth of tra fish at a price of 28,500 VND a kilo.

“In recent years, the price of tra fish fluctuated, causing heavy losses for farmers. The price of tra fish increased, but not many farmers had fish to sell,” he said. 

Nguyen Tan Phong, director of the Dai Thang Fisheries Co-operative in Hau Giang province’s Nga Bay town, said his co-operative had sold 200 tonnes of tra fish for 28,500 VND a kilo.

The production cost of tra fish is about 22,000 VND a kilo, he said.

Last year, the Delta had about 6,078 ha of tra fish with an output of 1.25 million tonnes, up 3.1 percent in breeding areas and 5.4 percent in output against the previous year.

Nguyen Van Cong, director of the Dong Thap province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said the province’s tra fish breeding area covered 1,500 ha with an output of 400,000 tonnes last year, leading the Delta in tra fish breeding.

Dong Thap has improved the quality of tra fish and called on farmers to cooperate with tra fish processors to breed the fish, he said.

More than 60 percent of the province’s tra fish breeding area is bred under Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) standards, he added. With these measures, most farmers and processors have made profits.  

The country’s tra fish exports reached 1.8 billion USD last year, up 4 percent against 2016, according to the Việt Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers.

China, the US and the EU are the country’s largest tra fish importers. 

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