Seafood exports are expected to reach USD 8.7 billion

Seafood exports are recovering in the last few months of 2021, opening up an opportunity to moderately increase this year’s total export value.

Seafood exports are expected to reach USD 8.7 billion this year. Photo: TL.

According to estimates by the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), Vietnam's seafood exports in November 2021 reached 188 thousand tons, worth USD 880 million, down 0.38% in volume and 0.97% in value compared to October 2021, but up 1% in volume and 18.6% in value over the same period in 2020.

In the first eleven months of 2021, seafood exports reached 1.8 million tons, worth USD 7.9 billion, down 2.3% in volume but up 3.5% in value over the same period last year. Vietnam's seafood exports in 2021 are forecasted to reach 1.97 million tons with a total value of USD 8.75 billion. There shall potentially be a decrease of 2.7% in volume, but instead it will be a 4.1% increase in value compared to the previous year.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) also estimated that seafood exports in eleven months had reached nearly USD 8 billion. To be more specific: shrimp exports are estimated at over USD 3.5 billion; nearly USD 1.4 billion in the case of pangasius; fish of other kinds more than USD 1.5 billion; tuna USD 670 million; squid and octopus USD 543 million; crabs and other crustaceans USD 163 million; bivalve mollusks USD 126 million.

As stated by the Import-Export Department, as the Covid-19 epidemic has primarily been under control and the vaccination rate at enterprises and industrial parks has increased, it is forecasted that Vietnam's seafood exports in the first quarter of 2022 will experience significant growth.