According to Dong Thap Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the locality has the largest pangasius farming area and output in the country, as of August, the province's total pangasius farming area reaches more than 1,600 hectares, of which, The harvested area is nearly 553 hectares, the harvested output is over 223 thousand tons.
People harvest pangasius in Mekong delta. Photo: Cuu Long
Currently, raw pangasius is in the harvesting season, but due to the complicated development of the Covid-19 epidemic, the price has dropped to 20,500-21,500 VND per kg. Meanwhile, the average cost to produce 1 kg of raw fish is about 22,500 VND per kg, at this price the farmer loses 900 VND to 1,400 VND per kg.
At a recent online meeting with the People's Committee of Dong Thap province, local pangasius businesses said that the biggest difficulty of pangasius processing factories is implementing "3 on-site" because there are too many costs incurred. Costs, wages and salaries of workers increased, transportation of raw materials and goods faced many difficulties.
On the other hand, workers do not want to do "3 on-site" because they are far from home. As a result, many businesses have reduced their processing capacity or closed. Others still maintain that they want to do "3 on-site" flexibly and self-responsible for health checks and Covid-19 tests before entering the factory for workers and employees.
Similarly, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) also said that in Can Tho, the prices of many types of farmed fish also fell below production costs, making farmers suffer heavy losses. According to statistics, in Can Tho, the cost of raising pangasius for export is at 22,000-23,000 VND per kg, but raw pangasius can only be sold for 21,000-21,500 VND per kg, so pangasius farmers are losing money. By the end of July, Can Tho's pangasius farming area reached more than 548 hectares. In this province, processing factories also stopped or temporarily stopped buying raw materials due to the epidemic.
Along with the above two provinces, in Vinh Long, Tien Giang ... pangasius also tends to decrease sharply, the price is only 20,000-22,000 VND per kg, the farmers have no profit, if they have to rent ponds them loss will be even greater. Faced with the above challenges, many farmers are reducing the area of intensive farming of pangasius and it is forecast that this trend will continue in the near future.
According to VASEP's forecast, although the market demand for imported pangasius from the US, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Canada, Colombia, Russia, UAE... starts to increase positively. However, the Covid-19 epidemic has spread from Ho Chi Minh City to Mekong delta provinces in the past time, causing export processing enterprises to be passive and seriously affected.
Therefore, the export market will only recover when pangasius processing enterprises restore production and increase capacity back to normal. At that time, the price of raw pangasius may increase.
Source: vnexpress.net
