In supermarkets, we can often see the basa fish in the form of white frozen fish fillet (peeled fish fillets) in the freezer, the fish fillets are white in flesh, very few spines, and the taste is fresh, which is a very popular aquatic ingredient in the past two years! Many of the sauerkraut fish, tomato fish, and boiled fish you usually eat are made with basa fish fillets! Today Lao Fan will come to tell you about the basa fish.
This picture shows the biological tree of the catfish family, and the two species of fish marked in the red box are the basa fish.
The Basha fish is actually a catfish, belonging to the catfish order Catfish, the giant catfish family, and the giant catfish, native to the lower Mekong River basin in Vietnam. Today, it is an important freshwater farmed fish species in Southeast Asian countries, transliterated as "cabasa" in Vietnam, scientific name pangasius bocourti, which has a long and scaleless body, a relatively small head, and a wide mouth and large eyes.
As you can see from the chart above, global catfish farming production is growing rapidly, exceeding 5 million tonnes in 2017.
Global production of catfish and bass fish is growing rapidly, while prices are falling. The orange line in the figure shows the wholesale price of basa fish fillets imported from the United States.
There are three major catfish cultured species in the world, namely bassa fish (mainly in Vietnam), mine catfish (mainly in Indonesia), and striped catfish (mainly in Bangladesh).
Catfish are many species in North America, and are not mainly used for food fish, the locals prefer catfish as a sport fishing species, we see on the Tubing in the laowai catch giant freshwater fish, most of them are catfish.
Among the various catfish species in North America, only the spotted forktail catfish is a very important catfish cultured species, and it is also a very popular white meat fish in North America, which is widely farmed in the southern United States.
There are many farms in the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, USA, and when processed into fillets, they are mainly supplied to the local market. China also imported spotted forktail catfish from the United States in the 1980s for culture and processed into fillets, which have been exported to the Us market.
China, the world's largest producer of freshwater fish, also cultivates many species of catfish. Yellowtail, catfish, river group and spotted forktail catfish are four catfish cultured species with great production in China, of which the cultured production of yellow jaw fish is the largest.
The world's basha fish farming areas include Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and so on. Vietnam is the world's largest producer of farmed basa fish and is the industry's dominant player. Due to the relatively small domestic market in Vietnam, Vietnamese basa fish farmers have tapped the export market, and the market is spread to dozens of countries around the world. In recent years, China has become the largest export market for Vietnamese basa fish.
In 2008, the demand for basha fish in the US market decreased due to the financial crisis, and after 2008, the production of basa fish began to decline, and then gradually recovered. In recent years, the scale of basa fish farming in Southeast Asian countries has been expanding, except for Vietnam, which still has the highest preserved production (about 1.2 million tons in 2017), the production of basa fish in Cambodia and Indonesia is also expanding rapidly, and there are also a small amount of basa fish culture in southern China.
Basa fish grow fast, have a high meat yield and low farming costs, and are mainly produced in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. The Basa fish farming industry is fully supported by the Vietnamese government in order to replace tilapia in the international market and increase foreign exchange earnings. (Basha fish is one of the cheapest freshwater fish in the world)
The main area for the cultivation of Basha fish is the waters of the Mekong River estuary, which is the junction of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, mainly in Vietnam. Therefore, in addition to the cultivation of basa fish in Vietnam, Cambodia also cultivates it. The scientific name of the bass fish is the Giant Catfish.
As can be seen from the figure above, the culture density of basa fish is very high.
Vietnamese Basa fillet relies entirely on artificial processing into fillets, frozen and exported. Because of its low labor costs, the cost of farming and processing basa fish in Vietnam is relatively low, so the basa fish fillet is cheaper than the tilapia fillet in the international market.
In recent years, the production of catfish farming in Indonesia has grown very rapidly. However, the largest aquaculture production in Indonesia is another type of catfish: the mine catfish; the basha fish aquaculture production is the second largest in Indonesia.
Vietnam has been the largest exporter of Basa fish fillets from 2012 to 2018. China was an important global exporter of forktail catfish in 2012, but by 2018, China's forktail catfish exports had been very small. Mainly because Chinese also began to consume whole fish and fillets, and exported to domestic sales. (Cheap, no fish bones, relatively simple cooking of whole fish and fillets, also loved by young Chinese people)
Global export pattern of frozen basa fish and catfish fillets from 2012 to 2018.
Global import pattern of frozen basa fish and catfish fillets in 2018. In 2012, the United States was the world's largest importer of basa fillets, and by 2018, China's imports of basa fish have surpassed the United States to become the world's largest consumer of basa fish.
Vietnam's frozen basa fillets are mainly exported to the United States, China and Mexico! (You should be able to feel that since 2018, frozen basa fillets have appeared in a large number of supermarkets in China, and more and more dishes made with basa fish in restaurants have also been made)
99% of China's imports of basa fish come from Vietnam.
The United States currently mainly imports Vietnamese basa fillets, while imports of Chinese spotted forktail salmon fillets have been very small.
The number of frozen forktail catfish fillets exported by China to the United States has plummeted, and it is expected that the export volume will be less and less in the future, and domestic sales will be more and more.
Mexico imports basa fillets mainly as a substitute for tilapia fillets, while Brazil has also begun to import small amounts of basa fillets in recent years.
Due to the economic downturn in Russia in recent years, the import volume of Basa fish fillets has shown a downward trend.
In addition to the import of basa fish, a large number of basa fish enter China through gray channels in Vietnam every year.
From the figure, it can be seen that vietnam's production of basa fish from 2017 to 2018 is about 1.2 million tons to 1.4 million tons (fao data), while the processing rate of basha fish fillets is about 55%, according to Vietnam's 1.3 million tons of aquaculture production, Vietnam can process about 700,000 tons of frozen fish fillets. In 2018, Vietnam exported about 400,000 tons of basa fish fillets worldwide, and about 300,000 tons of fillets are missing. According to customs data, in 2018, China imported about 100,000 tons of basa fish fillets from Zhengguan in Vietnam, and it is estimated that a large part of the 300,000 tons of basa fillets with unknown destinations entered the Chinese market through gray channels.
The impact of the new lung epidemic on the Chinese basa fish market
Food safety: formal channels to import, eliminate gray channels, so that the people can buy reliable basa fish.
Catering channels: Affected by the epidemic, the catering market in the first half of 2020 is not optimistic, the sales of basa fish are dismal, and Vietnamese farms have begun to reduce production.
U.S. Market: The main market for frozen bass and forktail fillets, the current situation is uncertain.
South American market: Brazil, Mexico, imported basa fish fillet growth, the current epidemic is not serious.
Statement of Originality
This article is an original article for eight fresh crossings of the sea. Please do not reprint without authorization.