This is an optimistic sign after exports have been dropping for the past 7 consecutive months, say VASEP. By mid-November this year, Russia had imported over 39,000 tonnes of Vietnamese tra and basa fish, worth US$63.65 million, down by 63 percent from a year earlier.

Although Russia is a huge potential market, the VASEP has warned seafood export businesses to be wary as the market changes quickly and is very risky.

The fees charged for opening a letter of credit (L/C) in Russia’s banks are much higher than banks in other countries. Therefore, Russian businesses don’t want to open an L/C to guarantee payments, and instead they choose other methods to save costs which create problems for customers.

Apart from Russia, Vietnamese tra fish exports to the US and ASEAN have risen by 53 percent and 31.5 percent respectively, and reached a total value of nearly US$3 million in the first half of November.

Meanwhile, there are no optimistic signs in the Ukrainian market, tra fish exports to the country fell by 2 percent against the same period last year. This reduction was also seen in the Netherlands, by 54 percent, and in Poland, by 73 percent.

From the beginning of this year until November 15, the total value of Vietnamese tra and basa fish exports was US$1.171 billion, down by 10 percent against the same period in 2008. VASEP estimates that the export value will hit US$1.3 billion by the end of this year.