The popularity of pangasius and the efforts of the Vietnamese business community to bring pangasius to all five continents have helped the industry bring in a large source of foreign currency each year. With an export turnover of $1.5-2.4 billion per year, pangasius alone accounts for 16-26% of Vietnam’s total seafood export value.
Pressured by anti-dumping tax barriers in the US market every year, being “bummed” by the media in the EU because of competition with white fish and other market barriers, but Vietnamese pangasius is still strong. reaching out to the world market thanks to the growth of the Vietnamese pangasius export and processing business community, knowing how to seize market opportunities, overcome challenges and barriers, affirm the prestige and quality of products. of Vietnam.
As a result, pangasius has become the No.1 favorite farmed whitefish in many markets such as the EU, Mexico, UK, China, Japan, Middle East countries… and increasing market share in major markets. other like USA, Russia…
In the past 6 years, pangasius exports have experienced a period of ups and downs, mainly affected by the Covid pandemic in the two years 2020-2021.
Accordingly, in 2020, pangasius exports fell to the lowest level of nearly 1.5 billion USD, down 26% compared to 2019. The reason is due to the strong outbreak of Covid in the world market, especially in the US and EU. causing demand to decline and more seriously, the disruption of the global trade logistics chain, the sharp increase in sea freight rates, making pangasius enterprises unable to survive in markets as far away as the Americas and Europe.
In 2021, the consumption market began to stabilize again, but waves of Covid-19 continued to break out in Vietnam, culminating in the third quarter of 2021, causing the entire seafood production and trade chain to be disrupted. , of which the heaviest is pangasius because it is located in the epidemic center and stalled at the right time to speed up export production for the end of the year and the new year. Therefore, although pangasius exports have recovered by 8%, they still only reach over 1.6 billion USD.
2022 is the “renaissance” period of the pangasius industry. Vietnam’s pangasius exports have made a strong breakthrough with a record of 2.4 billion USD. After the peak of the epidemic, inventories remained high, production and processing recovered, and demand in all markets increased. Pangasius export prices to other markets increased by 20-55%, especially in the US market. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused the supply of white fish in many markets to decrease, creating opportunities for pangasius to increase its market share.
Inflation is reducing the demand for seafood in the world market, pangasius exports are also partly affected, but with the advantage of stable supply and suitable prices, pangasius exports will remain stable. than other sectors and is expected to make a strong breakthrough when the market stabilizes again.
Forecasting a decrease in the supply of white fish in 2023 and a sharp increase in the price of white fish, Vietnamese pangasius still sees an optimistic opportunity in 2023. As inflation penetrates the world economies In the world, especially in G7 markets, consumers have and will continue to tighten spending on high-priced food items. Therefore, although it is more or less affected to consumption and food demand, compared to other seafood products, next year pangasius consumption and imports into markets may not be significantly reduced.
In December 2022, VASEP released the Pangasius Industry Report 2017-2022 to give businesses and readers a big picture of the development of the pangasius production and export industry in the past 6 years. , including developments in export growth to markets, the position of pangasius in the total demand for white fish in the world as well as the main import markets, pangasius exporters to each market and leading importers. The report also provides forecasts for the year 2023 and to 2025 for the pangasius export industry, the context of each main consuming market.
