The sales director of the well-known seafood trading company Siam Canadian Group (Thai-Canada Group) in Vietnam, Le Thi Thuy Trang, told UCN: "Due to poor weather conditions, the current timing is not suitable for breeding basa fish. Continuous heavy rains have affected the pH value of the pond water, and the drastic changes between sunny and rainy days have led to an increase in mortality rates."
"Moreover, the survival rate of the fry is quite low, and the cost of breeding has increased. Farmers clearly realize that the current timing is not suitable for breeding, and they are unwilling to release the fish. They prefer to wait until the basa fish grow to a larger size to achieve higher profits," Trang said.
Since August, the price of basa fish fry in Vietnam has risen significantly, almost reaching the high point for the first quarter of this year.
In the 34th week (August 18-24), the factory purchase price for basa fish of 1.2kg+ specifications (mainly sold to China) fell, narrowing the gap with the price of medium and small specifications; while the price for 800g-1kg specifications (targeted at the European and American markets) increased slightly.
Trang stated that currently, processing factories mainly rely on their own production to maintain output, with prices remaining stable at $3.15-$3.25/kg, consistent with the end of July. If the factories run out of their own bred basa fish, farmers will raise the prices, so the trend of rising raw material prices is evident.
In the 35th week, the price of basa fish from Vietnam in the U.S. wholesale market remained stable, with buyers still very cautious. The overall market demand in the U.S. was weak, and importers were still dealing with existing inventory.
Starting from July, the market for basa fish raw materials weakened, with a drop of around 10%; the price of fry fell by about 5%. The supply shortage situation began to emerge in August.