Aquatic product export on recovery

Vietnam’s aquatic product export is expected to hit 8.7-9 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 5-7 percent compared with last year's figure as demand is rising in many countries thanks to vaccination.

The implementation of large-scale vaccinations in many countries helps people gradually feel secure and return to tourism, entertainment and public activities. Therefore, the demand for seafood will recover in both the restaurant, hotel and service sectors, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) said.

The recovery of the consumption market continued to affect the demand for procurement and processing aquatic products for export, which dominated the trend of increasing raw material prices.

Data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department showed that Vietnam’s aquatic export revenue was estimated at 3.24 billion USD by the end of May, up 12 percent over the same period last year.

The United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea remained to be the top export markets of Vietnamese seafood in the four months of this year, accounting for 56.1 percent of the total export value.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that tra (Pangasius) fish and shrimp are items with significantly increased export value. He attributed the activeness of enterprises in market expansion to positive results of the export of the sector in general and the aquatic products in particular.

Pangasius imports in some major markets such as China and South American markets tend to slightly increase with the rising demand for large-sized fillets while factory inventories and the supply of raw fish of this size are currently are not high, Hai Quan (Customs) newspaper reported.

According to the Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department, the world's demand for shrimp import would increase again, especially in large markets while the supply from countries including India and other suppliers would decrease due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nguyen Quoc Toan, the department’s director, said: “It is forecast that Vietnam's shrimp exports in the following months will still achieve good growth results due to many advantages from Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and stability in farming and production when the COVID-19 pandemic is put under control."

The stable supply of pangasius has created favourable conditions for its export activities in the first half of this year. Therefore, he said, it is necessary to focus on promoting pangasius exports to large and traditional markets such as the United States, European Union, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the third quarter of this year.

Attention should be paid to the markets that are recovering including Russia and the United Kingdom, Toan said.

According to the MoIT, the exports of aquatic products to the Chinese, Japanese and European Union markets would not recover strongly. Such markets as Australia, Canada, UK, Russia would continue to be new bright spots for aquatic products exports in the second half of the year because the demand is increasing and there are no market barriers.

While enjoying favourable conditions, the export of aquatic products still faced many obstacles from now until the end of the year, a representative of the MoIT said.

Specifically, the market demand focuses on canned products, dry goods, surimi, preserved and processed goods with affordable prices which are suitable for retail consumption. Demand for fresh aquatic products would continue to decline, the representative said.

Aquatic product export exceeds 4.1 billion USD in H1

Vietnam’s aquatic product export in the first half of this year exceeded 4.1 billion USD, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) released.

In June alone, the value rose 20 percent year-on-year to 865 million USD, according to the association.

Shrimp export stood at about 402 million USD in the month, bringing the total value in the first six months to 1.7 billion USD, up 13 percent from the corresponding time last year.

The US, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK) and Germany were the main buyers of Vietnamese shrimp. However, the product made up only 8.5 percent of the market share in the US – the world’s largest shrimp importer.

Vietnam’s tra fish export in June also increased 35 percent from the same period last year to over 150 million USD, raising the its six-month turnover to 788 million USD, up 18 percent year-on-year.

Notably, tra fish export to the US expanded 170 percent, accounting for 21 percent of the total revenue, and to Mexico, Brazil, the UK, Thailand, the Netherlands, Colombia and Russia was also rose from 100-450 percent.

Although Vietnam’s tra fish export to China dropped over the past months, the neighbouring country remained a big buyer, making up 26 percent of the country’s accumulative value.

Last month, the country’s seafood export went up 21 percent to hit 312 million USD, pushing the value in the first half to 1.6 billion USD, up 16 percent year-on-year.

Seafood accounted for nearly 40 percent of the aquatic product export in the two quarters.

VASEP experts said aquatic product export to major markets, except for China that is tightening import procedures in line with COVID-19 prevention and control measures, has seen positive signs.

The association forecast that this year’s value would hit 9 billion USD.