Tuna To Be Sold At Low Price

After Tet Holiday, tuna price suddenly drops, fishermen cannot explain this situation while the authorities cannot intervene.

Large amount of tuna at Hon Ro fishing with unfavorable price.

On 22^nd, February, Mr. Nguyen Trung Hieu, Head of Hon Ro Fishing Port Management and South Central fish market (in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa Province) said there are hundreds of tuna vessels at the port these days. The average fish quantity per vessel is 2 tons but fishermen cannot be happy due to low price.

Price can possibly fall deeper

According to Mr. Hieu, fish price at the port stays at 93.000 dong/kg while it is 110.000dong/kg before Tet. Mr Hieu said that many traders, dealers put pressure on fish price because of huge available supply.

Mr. Dat – 2 vessels owner in Phuoc Dong Commune, Nha Trang city stated that traders try to low down the price in upcoming period. They affirm that it is currently the low price period and the price will go up at the end of the year.

In Phu Yen Province, tuna price become even lower, 80.000/kg, decrease by 25.000 compared to that before Tet. Mr. Phan Thuan – Fisheries Union President of Ward 6, Tuy Hoa city asserted that traders take the excuse of decreasing gasoline price to reduce the price. Unfortunately, tuna price is allowed to float so dealers can easily put the squeeze on it.

On some fish trading sites, tuna price (22/2) on the world market remains stable. Mr. Nguyen Tri Phuong, Deputy Director of MARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) also said that worldwide tuna price is still stable so it makes no sense that Vietnam dealers buy at extremely low price.

Macro problem?

Under this situation, the government cannot intervene. It is possibly when tuna fishing activities form a supply chain then authorities can control the price and fishermen will no longer suffer this pressure.

Mr. Vo Khan En, Deputy Head of Fisheries Resources Exploitation and Protection in Khanh Hoa province disclosed that provincial fishermen have changed to hand fishing combined with light fishing so yields would become higher than using traditional methods. Traders commented that new fishing methods reduce the fish quality so the price should decrease. However, after training and requiring fishermen to comply with the process to ensure the quality, dealer still put the squeeze on price.

A farmer who has been sent to participate tuna exploitation trial under advanced technology on Yanmar 01 in Japan affirmed that in order not to depend on dealer, they need to apply Japan technology in fishing to ensure the quality and export to Japan market with higher price.

Dung Nguyen

Source: nld.com.vn