While the Chinese market has recently stepped up import of tra fish, or pangasius, from Vietnam,

From early this year to mid-February, exports of pangasius to China reached over $27.4 million, up 53 percent over the same period last year and accounted for 16.7 percent of total tra exports. Meanwhile, exports to the EU in this period fell 17.6 percent to $25.2 million and accounted for 15.3 percent of the sector’s total.

Tra exports to the EU market have faced difficulties recently, especially since Carrefour, Europe’s largest retailer, stopped importing the fish from Vietnam.

“With the current situation, the fall in exports of Vietnamese agricultural products, including tra, to the EU will continue,” said Vo Hung Dung, vice president and general secretary of VN Pangasius.

According to Dung, although the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement (EVFTA) can benefit Vietnam’s economy, the future of agricultural commodities would be unclear.

Meanwhile, Yohan Perrault, technical and marketing director for Asia of EuroCham, said news about the unqualified Vietnamese products in the EU market had caused a big dent to the export of Vietnamese agricultural products in general and tra fish in particular.

Yoann Perrault told the conference that Vietnam had 11 shipments returned by the EU recently due to the contamination of bacteria, viruses, mercury and pesticides.

Besides, the process of raising, processing and freezing farm produce of Vietnam has not met European standards, making EU consumers not interested in Vietnamese products and EU food manufacturers hesitant in using Vietnamese materials for food processing.

Moreover, Vietnam does not have an effective mechanism for domestic businesses and EU businesses to work together to solve problems.

According to Yoann Perrenlt, besides adopting a dialogue mechanism between Vietnam and the EU to create transparency, special attention should be paid to the improvement of product quality.

“When the EVFTA is signed, tax barriers will be lowered, but product standards must be raised,” Perrenlt said.