The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development held an online conference discussing solutions to promote tra fish farming in the final month of 2021 and set out plans for 2022.
According to the Directorate of Fisheries, the seafood and the tra fish industry will continue to encounter difficulties and challenges in 2021. The low price of raw tra fish since 2019 has affected the production and investment in this industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected the production and consumption chain for the tra fish market.
In the Mekong Delta provinces, the long social distancing period from July to September, disrupted production and transportation of fingerling fish, feed and raw fish. Many farming facilities lack harvesters while some feed mills and tra fish processing factories had to suspend operations or reduce capacity. In addition, the Mekong Delta provinces have also met increasing production costs, potential risk of raw material shortages for export, interrupted international transportation, and difficulties in consumption of tra fish products.
In this context, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development promptly implemented many practical actions, such as establishing the special working group 970 to directly handle problems arising in production due to social distancing and holding conferences to discuss solutions to remove obstacles for seafood production and consumption in addition to the tra fish industry.
Thanks to such efforts, output of tra fish farming in 2021 is estimated at about 1.5 million tonnes, equal to that in 2020 which the export turnover is estimated at over 1.5 billion USD.
The Vietnam Directorate of Fisheries said that the tra fish industry strives to produce over 1.7 million tonnes of tra fish and achieve an export turnover of over 1.6 billion USD in 2022.
At the same time, the fisheries industry will focus on improving the quality of tra fish breeds to enhance production efficiency and reduce costs.
Speaking at the conference, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Thap province Huynh Tan Dat said that the production area and output of tra fish in the province in 2021 decreased compared to 2020 due to the pandemic. The sales price decreased, so farmers suffered the loss. The price of tra fish has shown signs of increasing in recent times.
To serve the production target of the last month of the year and prepare for 2022, Dong Thap will improve the quality of tra fish while promoting both domestic and foreign markets. Besides, businesses also need to pay more attention to grasping the needs of markets while diversifying products and boosting goods with higher added value.
In the context of climate change, Dong Thap proposed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to support localities in monitoring environmental indicators in tra fish farming and the enhancement of production infrastructure for producing tra fish breeds.
At the conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien emphasised that the tra fish industry has many advantages. It is a chain production from breeds to feed as well as harvesting, preliminary processing, and market promotion. In particular, the tra fish sector earns increased values in regards to higher value-added products.
The current problem is how to improve the quality of production chains, as well as the quality of inputs and market promotion, Tien noted.
The tra fish market is believed to be relatively optimistic in 2022, but in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is very unpredictable. Therefore, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien suggested the Directorate of Fisheries, in coordination with localities and businesses, exchange solutions to soon recover the industry in 2022.
He also proposed to continue to open the market for the tra fish industry and diversify tra fish products, to create convenience for consumers. Besides export markets, it is also necessary to pay attention to the domestic market and to promote the sales on e-commerce platforms.
