HCM City (VNA) – Vietnamearned 369.1 million USD from exporting tra fish to the US in the firstnine months of this year, up 42.9 percent year-on-year.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exportersand Producers (VASEP), the value was close to 48 million USD in September, arise of 152.5 percent against the same period last year, and 65.9 million USDin August, a year-on-year increase of 256 percent.

Businesses attributed the surge to stable market demands andhigher prices.

Besides, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)under the United States Department of Agriculture has proposed continuing Vietnam’seligibility to export Siluriformes fish, commonly known as catfish, and fishproducts to the US.

The US Federal Register has published a draft of a proposalto maintain the eligibility of the three countries of Vietnam, China andThailand to export catfish and fish products to the US as proposed by FSIS.

In the draft recommendation, FSIS has recognised thecatfish inspection system in Vietnam, China and Thailand asequivalent to the US system.If this draft is approved, these three Asian countries will officially beallowed to continue exporting catfish to this market, VASEP said.

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced the preliminary resultsof the 14th period of review (POR 14), lowering anti-dumping tariffs onpangasius (tra fish) imports from Vietnam by 3.78-5.35 USD perkilogram, compared with the levels in POR 13.

According to the Department of Trade Defenceunder the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, tra fish exported by NTSFSeafoods JSC, a mandatory respondent of POR 14, between August 1, 2016 and July31, 2017, is imposed an antidumping tax of 1.37 USD per kilogram. Meanwhile,Hung Vuong Group, another mandatory respondent of the review, has been exemptedfrom the tax.

The antidumping duty is 0.41 USD perkilogram for voluntary respondents and 2.39 USD for the remaining Vietnamesetra fish exporters.

Meanwhile, the average tariff on tra fishimports from Vietnam in POR 13 was 3.78 percent, with the highest level being 7.74USD per kilogram.

DOC will announce the final results of POR14 in January 2019.

Additionally, many Vietnamese businesses have seen theUS-China trade war as an opportunity to step up tra fish exports to the US.

VASEP forecast that the USwould surpass China tobecome Vietnam’sbiggest tra fish importer in the fourth quarter of this year.

Apart from the US,Vietnam’s tra fish exportsto other markets like China,the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)has also made significant progress.

As of the end of September, Vietnam’s tra fish exports to theEU reached 176.4 million USD, up 14.6 percent year-on-year. The pace isexpected to continue until the end of this year.

Meanwhile, the country pocketed 376.8 million USD from trafish exports to China, a rise of 30.8 percent against the same period lastyear. China is now Vietnam’s biggest tra fish importer, making up 23.6 percentof its total tra fish export value.

ASEAN is Vietnam’sfourth largest tra fish importer with export value to the market hitting 145.5million USD as of September 30, up 44 percent year-on-year.

During the period, Vietnam’s tra fish export value amountedto 1.59 billion USD, increasing 22.6 percent year-on-year.

VASEP forecast that the figure will reach 2.1 billion USDthis year, up 22 percent compared to 2017, the highest level to be recorded bythe sector.-VNA