In the third and fourth quarters of 2021, the US increased its imports of pangasius by nearly 50% to compensate for a significant decrease in some other markets. In particular, there were big winners (IDI accounted for 22%) in the South American market when Mexico and Brazil rushed to eat after the epidemic was controlled.

One of the reasons why pangasius "sucks in" is because it is a very valuable food source for Western customers, rich in nutrients Omega 3, 6,9, DHA, protein and rich in vitamins A and E. all natural. They believe that eating pangasius is beneficial to health, because the unsaturated fatty acids have a very good antibacterial effect. This is even more practical in the context of Covid and its variants that are threatening human life.

Chairman of IDI Company (2nd from the right) discussed with Western customers about nutrition from Vietnamese pangasius

Successful people always have their own way

Mr. Huynh Van Hoa - Tan Loc ward, Thot Not District (Can Tho City) said that in 2021, pangasius farmers will face many difficulties when exports are shut down due to the raging Covid, high logistics costs have increased. causing seafood businesses to suffer, so they limited their purchases and the supply-demand balance continued to deviate sharply. .

Accordingly, the price of raw pangasius material continuously fell freely (17,000 - 18,000 VND/kg), lower than the production cost but still had no output, leaving thousands of farming households in the Mekong Delta on the brink of bankruptcy. However, Mr. Hoa and many other households, thanks to participating in cooperation with IDI Company for many years, are still "peaceful" because they have been consumed by this business at a high price as committed.

Vietnamese pangasius continues to wag its tail and swim far away

As for IDI, this company has turned "danger" into "opportunity" during social distancing. On the one hand, keeping the reputation with satellites in the associated farming area, on the other hand, it also helps to solve more cheap raw fish sources from free-farming households to increase stockpiles up to 1,400 billion VND. Abundant and diversified product range has helped IDI flexibly close many orders from companies in the same industry due to their crisis of raw materials and lack of empty containers to deliver on time and on contract...

The model of cooperation between IDI Company and "faithful" farming households for 12 years together and being "effectively tested" through stressful epidemic seasons, is a lesson worth pondering and learning.

After the crisis, Vietnam's pangasius industry is coming to a new age to reach new goals. Leaders of Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Giang and Dong Thap provinces said that the pangasius industry needs to be restored and developed to make up for missed opportunities during the 4.5-month gap due to the epidemic. To do so, it is imperative to comprehensively restructure, focusing on building and developing production and consumption chains; strengthening regional linkages; promote the application of digital technology in production; lower product costs and improve value-added products.

With a total expected output of up to 910,000 tons, an increase of about 4% compared to 2020 has shown the rise of pangasius in the two provinces of An Giang - Dong Thap, which is dominating aquaculture production and export, including large enterprises own their own farming areas and associated farming areas.

Farming households associated with IDI Company are enthusiastic in the new crop year

"Localities need to look in the same direction, jointly link from production, processing to export. The consensus of businesses is very important to contribute to helping the pangasius industry recover and emerge after the epidemic." Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan emphasized.