Japan became the Vietnams top shrimp importer

Due to the impact of the anti-dumping tax,  Vietnamese enterprises’ shrimp exported to the US sharply decreased while the demand of Japan increased due to the increase of the Yen, attracting the shrimp enterprises to move to this market, this makes Japan market become the Vietnam’s top shrimp importer. 

Shrimp processed for export

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Vietnam’s shrimp export in the first three months of 2017 tended to stop at $ US 618 million, meanwhile, the shrimp export turnover increased by 7% in 2016.

The price of raw shrimp sharply increased, the Anti-dumping tax made shrimp export to the US sharply decline, while demand of Japan increased due to the increase of the Yen, attracting the shrimp enterprises to move to this market. Shrimp export to other markets such as the EU and South Korea positively recovered, compensating for the decline in the US, China and Australia.

In the first quarter of 2017, Vietnam exported shrimp to 68 markets, increasing against the 64 markets in the same period in 2016. The top ten major markets included Japan, EU, US, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, ASEAN. Taiwan and Switzerland accounted for 95.4% of the Vietnam’s exported shrimp There was a change in the position of the top ten large shrimp importers in the first three months of 2017: Japan became the largest importer, The US was ranked No. 3. Canada was ranked at No. 6 and followed by Australia at rank No. 7.

The shrimp export to Japan started to recover from August, 2016 and continuously increased to March, 2017. Shrimp export only increased by 2.7% in the whole year 2016, while only in the first three months of 2017, the growth rate reached 29.6%, equivalent to $ US 135.4 million.

In the first quarter of 2017. Japan was the most remarkable market with rank No. 1 replacing The US due to the good growth rate of 29.6%. EU remained stable at rank No. 2, up 6.4%. Shrimp export to China declined in the first quarter of 2017 against the good growth in 2016. And shrimp export to South Korea reached the best growth thanks to the preferences from FTA between South Korea and Vietnam. The top five major markets included Japan (accounting for 21.9%), EU (accounting for 19.2%), China (accounting for 15.1%), South Korea accounting for (10%). Among the five markets, the export to Japan and EU and South Korea reach a good growth rate, in which, export to South Korea reached the most significant increase of 30.8%; export to the US and China decreased, in which the export to the US market sharpest drop to 26.3%.

In contrast, to increase in the first three- quarters, the shrimp export to the US declined in the fourth quarter of 2016. In the first quarter of 2017, the shrimp exported to this market still decreased. The shrimp export to US market in the first three months of 2017 reached nearly $ US 112 million, down by 26.3% compared to the same period in 2016. Due to the negative growth, US reduced its place to rank No. 3 in the Vietnam’s top major shrimp importers in the first quarter of 2017.

The climate changes such as drought and saline intrusion may take place and affect to brackish water shrimp farming in 2017. The productivity of raw shrimp in 2017 is forecasted to slightly increase to 660,000 tonnes on the 700 hectares of farming area. The shrimp export in 2017 is expected to reached $ US 3.4 billion, up by 9%. In which, white leg shrimp will reach about $ US 2 billion, up by 8% and black tiger shrimp will reach over $ US 900 million, up by 2%.