10 years of ups and downs for Vietnams shrimp industry

Vietnam’s shrimp has experienced many highs and lows in the last 10 years, but it may see more stable growth in the future. Recently, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc decided that Vietnam would aim to become a major shrimp production base fir the world.

2007-2009: growth rate not high but stable 

In 2008 and 2009, Vietnam’s shrimp export value increased steadily year after year with the growth rate of 8 percent for 2008 and 3 percent for 2009. Vietnam exported $1.7 billion worth of shrimp in 2009, an increase of 11 percent over 2007.

2010:  first year of great success

2010 is an important landmark in Vietnam shrimp industry’s history as Vietnam for the first time made high profits from shrimp exports.

In that year, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the high demand pushed the shrimp price up in the world market. This led to Vietnam’s sharp increase in shrimp export volume and turnover.

In 2010, Vietnam for the first time exported more than $2 billion, and had a high growth rate of 25 percent in comparison with 2009. This helped cement Vietnam’s position in the world market.

2012: the bitterness

Just two years later, Vietnam tasted the first failure with a minus growth rate of six percent. The failure was anticipated as a series of barriers were set up by import countries to block Vietnam’s shrimp exports.

2012 was the year in the midst of the global economic recession whichcausef the market demand to fall dramatically. Also in the year, epidemics had big negative impact on farming and processing.

2013-2014: growth rate regained

After the bad year of 2012, Vietnam witnessed great victory in the next two years. It exported $3.08 billion worth of shrimp products in 2013 and $4.1 billion in 2014.

Vietnam’s shrimp has experienced many highs and lows in the last 10 years, but it may see more stable growth in the future.

Vietnam’s shrimp then had benefits from the US administration’s recognition that Vietnam shrimp industry did not get avsubsidy from the government. With the recognition, Vietnam’s shrimp exports did not bear double tax when entering the US market.

In 2014, Vietnam’s shrimp exports exceeded the $4 billion threshold. The high export volume had special significance as Vietnam’s rivals all met difficulties at that time.

Thailand’s exports were affected by the information reported by the UK media that Thai farmers used fish paste provided by ships using illegal workers. 

2015: difficulties again

Vietnam exported $2.9 billion worth of shrimp in that year, a sharp fall of 29 percent compared with 2014.

A lot of negative factors affected Vietnam’s shrimp industry, including lower demand, export price decreases, higher supply from rivals and the depreciation of currencies of other shrimp export countries.

2016: good fortune again

VASEP estimates that Vietnam’s shrimp sales bounced back to over $3 billion in 2016.

Vietnam's shrimp export turnover in 2007-2016