Catfish export target to go down due to US tax levy

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam has cut the earnings forecast for catfish export this year to US$1.35 from the estimation of $1.38 billion in August due to the imposition of anti-dumping tax on the products in the US, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam catfish export to the US immediately fell after the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced to raise anti-dumping tariff on the products made by five exporters including Vinh Hoan, Vinh Quang, Agifish, ESS LLC and South Vina to 130 percent last month.

Currently, the average price of the product is around $3.5 – $4 a kilogram as Vietnamese product is enjoying the tariff rate of 0.52 percent.

If the tariff exceeds 100 percent, American customers will have to pay about $7-$8 a kilogram, thus making Vietnamese catfish products much less competitive, Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors as saying.

Vietnam is one of the biggest catfish exporters in the world, and the annual export of raw material totals 1.2 million tons a year.

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Catfish export target to go down due to US tax levy

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam has cut the earnings forecast for catfish export this year to US$1.35 from the estimation of $1.38 billion in August due to the imposition of anti-dumping tax on the products in the US, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam catfish export to the US immediately fell after the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced to raise anti-dumping tariff on the products made by five exporters including Vinh Hoan, Vinh Quang, Agifish, ESS LLC and South Vina to 130 percent last month.

Currently, the average price of the product is around $3.5 – $4 a kilogram as Vietnamese product is enjoying the tariff rate of 0.52 percent.

If the tariff exceeds 100 percent, American customers will have to pay about $7-$8 a kilogram, thus making Vietnamese catfish products much less competitive, Vietnam News Agency quoted Nguyen Huu Dung, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors as saying.

Vietnam is one of the biggest catfish exporters in the world, and the annual export of raw material totals 1.2 million tons a year.

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Vietnamese catfish makes list of US top 10 seafood

Vietnam’s tra and basa catfish have found a place among the 10 favorite seafood products in the US for the first time

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam’s tra and basa catfish have found a place among the 10 favorite seafood products in the US for the first time, according to the US National Fisheries Institute.

NFI’s president, John Connelly, also told officials from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at a recent meeting that the top 10 seafood products account for 88 percent of total consumption in the US.

Vietnam earned US$435 million from exporting seafood to the US in the first seven months this year. Catfish accounted for $80.8 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.2 percent, from shipments of 26,000 tons, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors said.

For several years now, Vietnamese catfish exporters have had a hard time selling their products to the US.

Just last May Catfish Farmers of America claimed that Vietnam’s tra and basa are “dirty,” of low quality, and seriously violated food quality standards in the first quarter.

Its website carried a four-minute video about catfish production in the Mekong River titled “Dirty Waters, Dangerous Fish” which purports to show polluted waters and badly maintained fish-processing plants.

Vietnam rejected the charges, saying the fish are raised in floating farms that meet international standards like SQF 1000 and GAP.

The US Department of Agriculture recently revealed its intention to list Vietnamese tra and basa as “catfish” to bringing them into the list of products covered by the Farm Bill.

It highlights the fickle nature of US demands for, in 2002, the department did the exact opposite – it said Vietnam cannot export tra and basa to the US as “catfish” since it feared the domestic catfish industry will be hit.

As a result, Vietnamese catfish has since been labeled “pangasius.”

The Farm Bill promises to pose more hurdles for Vietnamese catfish exports.

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