Pangasius Market Update : January 19, 2017
Most major Vietnam pangasius exporters and farmers are expecting largely tight pangasius raw material supplies going forward.
China is the biggest factor on putting pressure on raw material. China is expected to be the largest importer from Vietnam pangasius suppliers in 2017.
China demand from pangasius suppliers is largely for smaller sizes. China market using a lot of pangasius whole butterfly fish and fillets. Whole raw material weight averaging 500-700 gm per fish Vs 1-1.2 kg per fish for normal fillet market for Europe and North America.
China traders/buyers tend to pay cash which gives them substantial advantage especially with smaller pangasius exporters and farmers.
Vietnam experiencing problems at the hatchery level. Supply of high quality fingerlings is in short supply and prices high having moved up from VND 20-22,000/kg to VND 50-55,000/kg currently. Pond survival rate has been lower than usual with weather being a factor.
Expect pangasius brood stock to be producing eggs after Lunar New Year so major pond seeding will occur in April.
Due to a combination of short raw material, the approaching Lunar New Year as well as current strong demand from China and other Asian countries, raw material prices have moved up another 2,500VND (about 10%) over the past 10 days. We are currently seeing a lot of delayed shipments from pangasius exporters.
Going forward to 2017, this tight raw material situation will likely last until April. With expected seeding and harvesting patterns for the year, we expect better raw material supplies in Q2. Might see another drop in supplies in Q3 and again an improvement in Q4.