Vietnamese Pasha fish can't be sold. What's the matter with Chinese pickled fish?

Pasha fish, in recent years has become the star of China's catering channels ingredients.

Relying on the advantages of low price and high degree of deep processing, Basha fish has gradually become an important raw material for pickled fish, a famous dish in China.

As the pickled fish industry continues to grow, Basha fish is also marketed throughout China. Vietnam, as a major exporter of basa fish, has also made a lot of money in the past few years.

However, since the beginning of this year, Vietnamese aquatic products have not ushered in the expected growth, on the contrary, there has been a considerable decline, of which the biggest decline is Pasha fish.

So the market began to rumor that Vietnam's Pasha fish exports were sluggish because China's pickled fish could not be sold. Is that really the case?

Vietnam's Pasha Fish Exports Decline

In 2022, Vietnam's aquatic products exports reached 11 billion billion US dollars, a sharp increase of 61% over the previous year, ranking fifth in the world, second only to Norway, China, Ecuador and Russia. However, this year's situation is not optimistic. The Vietnam Seafood Exporters and Producers Association (VASEP) predicts that the annual export value of aquatic products will decline by about 20%.

Fan Xubing, director of the China Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association, told China News Weekly that from the perspective of Vietnam's aquatic product export structure, shrimp and basa fish are the two main products. Among them, shrimp is mainly exported to the European Union, the United States and Japan. Pasha fish was previously mainly exported to the United States. In recent years, due to the anti-dumping investigation conducted by the United States on Vietnamese Pasha fish, coupled with the sharp increase in demand from China, "pickled fish is on fire." so China has become the largest buyer of Vietnamese Pasha fish.

The Vietnam Association of seafood exporters and producers expects that among the main products this year, the export volume of basa fish is expected to decline by 28% to 17-1.8 billion US dollars. Shrimp exports are expected to decrease by 16%-18% to 35-3.6 billion US dollars. In addition, tuna and squid/octopus exports will be reduced by 14%-15% to $0.87 billion and $0.65 billion, respectively.

Pasha fish. Figure/Figure worm creativity

Fan Xubing said that the basa fish, the scientific name of the giant catfish, is a tropical freshwater fish, originating in the Mekong Delta and the Chao Phraya River Basin in Thailand, mainly distributed in Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia, of which Vietnam is the main breeding country.

From a global point of view, the overall volume of basa fish is not particularly large. Vietnam's annual output of basa fish is about 1.5 million tons, which already accounts for 95% of the world's output. The remaining 5% is mainly located in Malaysia, Myanmar, India and Bangladesh around Vietnam, but these places have not formed a scale.

Vietnam's Basha fish industry started in 1997. The tropical monsoon climate in the Mekong Delta provides favorable conditions for the growth and reproduction of Basha fish. The local area can not only keep the breeding cost very low, but also the number of times out of the pond can be twice a year. It is understood that the per mu yield of Vietnamese basa fish is about 15 tons a year, which is 4 times that of domestic tilapia and 5 times that of grass carp.

Moreover, due to the delicate meat quality of pasha fish, which is conducive to large-scale processing, pasha fish has now become a pillar industry for Vietnamese aquatic products to earn foreign exchange. In recent years, a total of 100 pasha fish factories are distributed in the Mekong Delta region, mainly in the Kowloon River Plain areas such as Anjiang, Tongta, Qinju and Qianjiang, belonging to the lower Mekong River and southern Vietnam.

In the first seven months of this year, the export volume of Vietnamese basa fish to the top five export markets decreased. Among them, the export volume to China decreased by 32% to 0.325 billion US dollars; the export volume to the United States decreased by 59% to 0.159 billion US dollars; the export volume to the European Union decreased by 22% to 0.101 billion US dollars; the export volume to Brazil decreased by 16% to 47 million US dollars, and the export volume to Britain decreased by 16%, for $40 million.

So, why is the demand for basa fish in the Chinese market weakening? Is it related to sauerkraut fish?

Basa fish is a key factor in the development of pickled fish industry

On September 25, with the official opening of Beijing Yizhuang Longhu Tianjie store, the number of "fish together" global stores officially exceeded 2000, becoming the largest pickled fish chain catering enterprise in China.

As the first domestic catering company to use pasha fish on a large scale, the pasha fish used by "Fish Together" is imported from Vietnam, and the current annual import volume is 10000 tons.

Before 2016, basa fish was rare. Wei Tongrong, founder of "Fish Together", told China News Weekly that she also accidentally discovered the ingredient Pasha fish when she opened a hot pot restaurant in 2016. "The meat is delicate, has no fishy smell, and most importantly, has no thorns. It is an excellent material for making pickled fish."

Sauerkraut fish is a famous dish in Sichuan and Chongqing regions of China. It has been popular since the 1990 s and has the characteristics of sour, spicy and fresh flavor. And the ingredients are easy to get, the production process is relatively simple, the taste acceptance is high, and gradually break through the geographical restrictions, and become a "national dish".

Chain management expert Wen Zhihong told China News Weekly that acid and spicy are addictive and have a strong consumer mind. As a high-protein food, fish has high nutritional value and meets the consumption needs of a healthy diet.

However, at that time, pickled fish was more of a big dish, mainly appearing in family gatherings and banquets. Although it was well-known, it also limited the consumption scene.

In Wei Tongrong's view, pickled fish used to appear mainly in the dinner scene. There are two reasons why there is no fast food: first, the fish has spines and worries about sticking their throats; second, diners used to like to kill live fish now and did not approve of frozen fish.

The fish solves this problem very well.

Fan Xubing said that basa fish is used on a large scale by the domestic pickled fish industry. On the one hand, it has a price advantage, and on the other hand, it has a high degree of deep processing and is easy to use. "After the large-scale chain of catering, higher requirements are put forward for product standardization, while Vietnam has a complete industry chain of pasha fish. All pasha fish imported into China have been divided, cut and pricked, and can be used directly."

Wen Zhihong also said that for chain enterprises, the use of already processed pasha fish can not only save store operation time, improve meal delivery efficiency, but also help ensure standardization.

It can be said that it is the large-scale use of Pasha fish that makes pickled fish begin to go to the whole country.

According to the "2018 Pickled Fish Market Development Report" released by Meituan, the number of pickled fish stores nationwide in 2016 was 13000, but it only took two years to reach 30000.

The chain catering industry with pickled fish as the main dish also ushered in rapid growth. For example, Jiumaojiu Catering Group also chose to cultivate a new brand "Taier Pickled Fish" when its brand "Jiumaojiu" showed weak growth, and now Taier has become one of the main brands of this catering group. According to Jiumaojiu's 2022 financial report, Taier's pickled fish restaurant earned 3.108 billion yuan during the reporting period, accounting for 77.6 percent of the total revenue.

In addition to food and beverage consumption, household consumption has also become an important driving force for pickled fish.

The epidemic in the past three years has brought prefabricated vegetables into thousands of households, among which pickled fish is the explosive in prefabricated vegetables. According to the "2022 China Pickled Fish Pre-made Vegetable Industry Research and Competition Pattern Monitoring Report" released by AI Media Consulting, more than 50% of the interviewed consumers like pickled fish pre-made vegetables, and 85.5 percent of the interviewed consumers buy pickled fish pre-made vegetables 1-3 times a week. The size of China's pickled fish prefabricated vegetable market will be 0.59 billion yuan in 2021 and is expected to reach 1.69 billion yuan in 2025.

Basa fish is domestic fish to seize the market

However, after 2020, the pickled fish, which has been developing rapidly for many years, suddenly slowed down, and the market even rumored that "pickled fish can't sell".

Qing Yong, founder of Tomato Capital, once said that according to the data from 2021 to May 2022, pickled fish opened 24558 new stores and closed 23220 stores.

According to the food and beverage data research and evaluation agency "Meal Treasure Book" shows that in the first half of 2023, 31.3 per cent of pickled fish enterprises are in a state of slow development, of which half of the pickled fish chain brands are in a state of contraction or stagnation.

In fact, since the outbreak was officially sealed at the end of last year, the restaurant industry has recovered faster than she expected. "We have opened an average of 300 stores a year in the past three years, but this year we have opened 569 stores as of September 28."

Judging from the data of Taier, another pickled fish head enterprise, the development speed of pickled fish is back on track. In the first half of this year, Jiu Maojiu is expected to earn 2.88 billion yuan, an increase of about 51.7 per cent over the same period last year, and the profit attributable to shareholders is not less than 0.22 billion yuan, an increase of not less than 281.3 per cent over the same period last year.

Therefore, the statement that "the decline in Vietnamese pangasius exports is due to the immobility of Chinese pickled fish" is not accurate. In Wei Tongrong's view, the real reason for China's weakening demand for Vietnamese pangasius is that during the epidemic, domestic black fish seized a portion of the pangasius market, realizing the domestic substitution of pickled fish ingredients.

As early as 2018, "Fish You Together" launched the blackfish product, but the sales volume at that time was not very large, and the ratio to the pasha fish was only 2:8.

"But after the epidemic, Vietnam's basa fish into China need layers of security checks, sometimes waiting in line to wait for a month. Once caused import difficulties. In addition, based on domestic quality control and procurement can not go to Vietnamese factories, long-term lack of our supervision, quality can not be guaranteed, is also a headache," Wei Tongrong said.

However, this problem does not exist in blackfish. China's blackfish producing areas are mainly in Guangdong, so it is very convenient to purchase nearby.

Public information shows that my country currently has more than 30 provinces and cities breeding black fish. In 2009, my country's black fish breeding output was about 358500 tons, and by 2021 this output was as high as 548500 tons. Among them, the amount of black fish in Guangdong is the most, accounting for 40%.

"Moreover, the price of black fish is not much different from that of basa fish, which will not cause too much burden on consumers," Wei Tongrong said. Some data show that the cost of black fish is only 15 to 20% higher than that of basa fish, and the gap will be even smaller if it is shared equally.

"In addition, the black fish is in the form of fillets and floats on it after cooking, while the pasha fish is a fish piece and will sink to the bottom. From the perspective of consumers, the former is more dominant," Wei Tongrong added.

At present, in "fish you are together", the usage of snakehead and basa fish is 1 to 1, which has been tied.

china newsweek also noticed one detail. In 2018, the first China-Vietnam Basha fish industry summit was held in Wuhan, China. This is the first industry summit with the theme of Basha fish. Major Basha fish breeding enterprises, processing enterprises and distribution enterprises in China and Vietnam attended.

In 2021, the summit will join the Blackfish Supply Chain Summit for the first time. This shows the competitive situation of Blackfish against Pasha fish.

So will Vietnamese basa fish be squeezed out of the Chinese market? Wen Zhihong analyzed that this would not be the case, on the contrary, as the pickled fish industry continues to grow, the demand for basa fish will rise steadily, after all, the cost advantage is obvious. And China's black fish industry will continue to develop in the competition with Vietnam's basa fish.