The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the United States will suspend the import of five aquatic products from China: catfish, pangasius, shrimp, dace, and eel until the importing companies can provide proof that their products do not contain drug residues. until. Due to several cases of drug and unsafe food additive residues, the FDA issued an import warning for several Chinese farmed aquatic products. The so-called banned fishery drug list includes the antibiotics nitrofurans, malachite green, crystal violet and quinolones, nitrofurans, malachite green and crystal violet have been shown to be carcinogenic to experimental animals. When quinolones are used in manufactured food, animals will develop resistance. In the United States, the above-mentioned fishery drugs are not allowed to be used in farmed aquatic products, and some of them have been proven to cause cancer when given to experimental animals for long periods of time.
U.S. importers and their Chinese export partners have found that if they comply with FDA testing requirements, shipping will increase an intolerable cost, and cost is becoming a major disadvantage. For example, a single sample test costs about US$300 on average, and the test fee for a box of 20,000 to 40,000 pounds of product is anywhere from US$25,000 to US$30,000, which is equivalent to a fine of US$0.75 per pound on average. The industry has tried its best to communicate and cooperate with the FDA to keep costs down. With this in mind, the hybrid testing method is very popular because it has the potential to greatly reduce the number of designated independent laboratory tests necessary. Before testing, mix the 6 samples together and the cost will be greatly reduced. For a Chinese exporter with a strong domestic market, the difference in shipping prices to the United States is far from enough to offset these testing costs.
This is why there is so much pressure to be removed from the automatic withholding list, because only by being removed can the product remain competitive. However, individual companies or exporters are required to pass five tests before they can release their products. These companies are likely to face a test fee of approximately US$100,000 before being released.
Thus, these control measures are almost equivalent to an outright ban. The current system is simply not commercially viable and is simply designed to maintain long-term contractual relationships and allow anyone to do business in the future. One solution is for the FDA to start accepting pre-shipment testing in the country of origin.
The impact of U.S. import restrictions is still having an impact on the catfish market. It is expected that this move will promote the consumption of domestic catfish in the United States and increase the import of catfish from Vietnam and Thailand, which may have a positive impact on the tilapia trade (interestingly, tilapia imports from China are not banned) . Whitefish prices are expected to rise across the industry.
The reality is that Chinese catfish are abundant in the market, and some domestic producers (mainly in the south) are worried about losing market share. These producers have stopped importing catfish from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries on the grounds that the species is not the same species as the American channel catfish. The catfish produced in China are the same species as those farmed in the United States, and they are both American catfish. Therefore, the lobbying of American producers cannot prevent imports from China.
Vietnam’s exports have tripled, but Vietnamese pangasius no longer occupies the top spot in the U.S. market. Thailand's exports also increased (80%, a very small market share compared to China and Vietnam).
By far, frozen fillets are the main type of catfish product imported into the United States. Imports of this product type have almost tripled. However, it is interesting to see the sudden emergence of imported products, mainly fresh catfish fillets (pangasius) from Thailand and Malaysia. A similar trend is emerging in the European market, and the development of this trend will be worth watching in the coming months.
Performance of Vietnamese catfish improved
The price of imported Chinese catfish in the U.S. market fell. However, at the same time, the price of frozen Vietnamese catfish (pangasius) fillets finally gained a higher price. The price has risen from US$2.40/kg to US$3.30/kg. Considering the Chinese catfish export issues described above, the bullish price trend for Vietnamese catfish (pangasius) products in the U.S. market is likely to continue.