VietNamNet Bridge – The prices of catfish exports to the US increased for a very short time before dropping dramatically now. This has been attributed to the unreasonable export strategy.

Vietnamese catfish processors and exporters once hoped that they could boost the catfish exports to the US, thus helping boost the Vietnamese catfish industry.

However, the dream cannot come true. The exports to the US and the export price could only increase for a short time in the post-POR 8 period, and then have decreased sharply, now hovering around $1.4-1.5 per pound.

This is the price level which, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) Chair Tran Thien Hai, is even lower than the export prices in the pre-POR 8 period.

A catfish exporter said that in April 2013, the US catfish importers, who feared that the prices would increase sharply after the POR 8, tried to import for catfish products from Vietnam.

Receiving big orders, Vietnamese seafood companies rushed to export catfish in large quantities to the US. These included some of the nine Vietnamese seafood companies which still could export to the US easily with no barriers thanks to the low tax rates applied to them (just zero percent in some cases),

Vinh Hoan Company, which was a compulsory defendant, was imposed the “bearable” anti-dumping duty of 0.19 percent. Meanwhile, the other companies had the tax rates unchangeable at 0-0.03 percent if compared with POR 7, because they did not have catfish exports to the US during the eighth administration review.

As such, Vietnamese companies exported catfish products to the US in large quantities in an effort to increase their presence in the US market and appropriate the market shares of the other enterprises, which now have to halt the export to the US because of the high anti-dumping duties.

VASEP’s Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe said that many other enterprises, which were keen on other markets, also tried to export to the US, once the exports to the other markets slowed down.

The catfish exports to the EU in the first five months of the year, for example, decreased by 17 percent in terms of value. The exports to Mexico dropped by 7.3 percent, to Colombia dropped by 3.4 percent.

The move of the companies to boost exports to the US just within a short period has been described by analysts as “ill-considered,” because it has brought long term consequences.

The massive exports to the US have led to the sharp increase in the volume of goods to the market just within a short time. Truong Thi Le Khanh, President of Vinh Hoan Company, thinks the amount of catfish products exported to the US in April alone was double.

As a result, the catfish price, due to the oversupply, has dropped dramatically. This, as analysts have warned, would not only lead to the lower profits for farmers, processors and exporters, but also could be a disadvantage for Vietnam for the next POR – POR 9.

The risk of bearing higher anti-dumping tax rates seems would be high, once the export price decreases while the export volume increases.

Hai of VASEP has said that only when Vietnamese businesses do business in an authentic way and they don’t scramble for each others’ market share, will all be able to make money in the US market

Nong Nghiep