Under a draft decree presented to the Government, producers and companies who farm, process or export tra fish would o­nly receive business licences if they obey food safety and hygiene requirements, clearly define food origins and protect the environment.

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam said that under the decree, producers would have their business licences revoked if they failed to meet the conditions.

The draft aimed to crackdown o­n the "spontaneous" appearance of tra fish production companies, which were causing difficulties in balancing supply and demand, he said.

If approved, the decree could be a catalyst to reform regulations for tra fish exports to international markets, Tam said.

Only producers who met the conditions would receive loans from the State Budget, he said.

The proposed new mechanism would fit in with World Trade Organis-ation requirements, he said. It would also regulate the mechanisms for export contracts, floor prices of materials and production cost, he said.

And it would help avoid barriers being put in place against tra fish from Vietnam, he said.

Duong Nghia Quoc, director of the provincial Agriculture and Rural Development Department, said the Mekong Delta's Dong Thap Province had around 1,500ha of tra fish farms and Tra fish exports accounted for up to 75 per cent of the total export turnover of the province.

It was therefore necessary to remove overlapping and other obstacles to the sector's management, he said.

Meanwhile, deputy head of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers Nguyen Huu Dung, said domestic export companies were competing against each other o­n selling price.

He said the export price was 2.80 USD per kilo three years ago compared to $1.80 per kilo now because companies had undercut each other.

Also, there needed to be more co-ordination among tra fish farmers, processors, and exporters, he said.

The nation's tra fish exports totalled 1.8 billion USD last year, equal to 2 per cent of GDP. Statistics show 290 tra fish processing companies had a combined capacity of 2 million tones of tra fish each year.