In 2018, it is estimated that the total Pangasius production reached 2.8 million tons, an increase of 6% compared to 2017. In particular, Vietnam (mainly concentrated in the Mekong Delta) accounts for about 45% of total production. Global Pangasius farming with a 2018 harvested output of less than 1.3 million tons.

The breed quality challenges early in 2018 were a cause of tight supply, the price of seed and tra fish in this year increased sharply. This leads to many processors and farmers continue to expand the scale of ponds, promote farming technology. In early 2019, a large-scale intensive farming project of catfish farming in 600 hectares in An Giang province was started. This project will start in the fourth quarter of 2019. It is expected that, when in operation, each year, this Tra fish farming area will supply about 200,000 tons of high quality Pangasius material for processing and export.

Vietnamese pangasius has more and more “competitors” competing on a global scale. On the global production of pangasius, Vietnam’s market share is slowing down, whereas positive growth is happening to Indonesia, India and Bangladesh. Each of these countries currently accounts for 15-20% of Pangasius production worldwide.

Currently, in China, a small pangasius industry is still growing rapidly in parallel with a powerful Chinese aquaculture industry, it has begun to meet the demand for domestic pangasius, which was previously supplied. This is mostly imported from Vietnam. Industry reports show that there are 20 farmed catfish processing factories in South China. And the current production capacity of China is only about 30,000 tons. This shows that China will have to take some more time to prepare before it wants to become a real competitor to Vietnamese pangasius on output.