The United States has surpassed China to become the largest importer of local tra fish during February, according to figures released by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Despite last month seeing tra fish exports to the majority of markets suffer sharp annual falls, shipments to the US rose to US$18.1 million, representing an increase of 17.8% on-year.

VASEP has also predicted there could be potential to develop tra fish exports in the North American market in the future, despite the COVID-19 pandemic having a largely negative impact on the trading of aquatic products.

Elsewhere, exporters will also be able to enjoy great opportunities in the EU following the the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement being recently ratified by the European Parliament, whilst the Vietnamese National Assembly are poised to adopt the trade deal. As a result of this, tariffs imposed on tra fish imports to the European market will be slashed to zero % over the course of the next three years.

In contrast to these positives, experts have proposed that farmers should make active attempts to reduce this year’s tra fish output by 10% from its figure of 1.2 million tonnes in 2019.

Data released by VASEP shows that the country made US$2 billion from tra fish exports throughout 2019, a drop of 11.7% on-year. This decline can be attributed to difficulties faced in terms of exports to traditional markets, in addition to shrinking export prices.