Many promises are waiting for Vietnamese pangasius in the Mexican market

( Export Pangasius Jan to July 2020 & 2021 )

As of the first half of August 2021, the total value of pangasius exports to the Mexican market reached 43.76 million USD, an increase of nearly 70% compared to the same period last year. With this result, Mexico has now surpassed Brazil to become the leading pangasius export market of Vietnamese seafood enterprises in Latin America.

In the first half of 2021, trade barriers from China and the decline in pangasius imports from the EU over the past several years have caused Vietnamese pangasius enterprises to shift to potential markets in ASEAN, the Middle East or Latin America. In which, the number of enterprises promoting pangasius exports to Brazil and Mexico increased significantly compared to the previous year.

In the second quarter of 2021, the value of pangasius exports to Mexico grew impressively to triple digits, from 166 to 232% over the same period in 2020.

Mexico is the market with the second highest per capita income in Latin America (after Brazil). Free trade system with relatively low import tax, ranging from 0-35% on average. This is also a market in the CPTPP bloc. According to the CPTPP Agreement, the import tax rate of seafood into the Mexican market will be 0% from the third year. Pangasius is the seafood product imported by Mexico with the largest volume and value, followed by fish products tuna.

Currently, the average export price of frozen pangasius fillets to the Mexican market ranges from 1.75 to 1.82 USD/kg on average. Many pangasius enterprises moved from some other markets to Mexico, so by the end of July 2021, there were more than 40 Vietnamese seafood enterprises exporting pangasius to Mexico. The largest of which are: IDI CORP, NAVICO and DATHACO. Pangasius processing enterprises in Dong Thap, An Giang, Ben Tre, Can Tho and Vinh Long are promoting pangasius exports to the Mexican market.

Currently, Vietnam mainly exports two main pangasius products to Mexico, which are frozen pangasius fillets and frozen cut fish to this market.

According to the Mexican Ministry of Health, in the first half of this year, about a quarter of the country’s population was infected with Covid-19 and is the fourth country in terms of the number of patients dying from the disease. However, after initial confusion and passivity, the country is now accelerating vaccination in parallel with disease control measures in many major cities. Like many other economies, at the end of August 2021, after more than 18 months of closure due to the Covid-19 epidemic, Mexico cautiously opened its economy and was ready to “live with Covid-19”.

Currently, Mexican importers have begun to stabilize production and gradually increase the amount of goods supplied to many big cities such as: Mexico, Guadalajara, Nezahualcoyotl, Monterrey… The country is also maintaining an open border policy to take advantage of economic benefits, promote production and trade..

Seeing the potential ahead, however, the most necessary thing for Vietnamese pangasius exporters during this time is to soon return to stable production after the gap. Right from the end of July 2021, up to 50% of pangasius processing factories in the Mekong Delta had to close due to failure to implement “3 on-site” or local Covid-19 infection. In the first half of August 2021, pangasius export value to Mexico is at a positive triple-digit growth rate, down 12.6% over the same period last year.

Hopefully, after social distancing efforts to control the disease in many localities, pangasius processing enterprises will soon stabilize again to maintain orders, create jobs for workers and capture export opportunities that the Mexican market promises to bring.

(Source: http://vasep.com.vn/)