Seafood exports to many European markets gained a good growth

Many European countries have imported our country’s seafood. Thus, the turnover growth in the recent months has been quite good.  

The turnover proportion of 7 US$-million markets of the country’s total exports at the end of May 2018. Chart: T. Binh

According to the update by the Customs, at the end of May 2018, the European markets imported Vietnamese seafood with a value of several tens of million of US$ on average, only two markets, Holland and England imported US$ 100 million and more.

In which, Vietnam’s largest importer in Europe was Holland, with a turnover of US$ 126 million, followed by England with a turnover of US$ 101 million.

Some other noticeable markets were Germany with a turnover of US$ 77.8 million; Belgium with a turnover of US$ 64 million, Italy with a turnover of US$ 53 million and France with a turnover of US$ 42 million.

Remarkably, the import turnover of Vietnamese seafood in many markets in Europe gained a good growth rate and was higher than the whole country’s average, such as the Holland market increased 63.6%, Belgium increased 28% and Germany increased 27.7%

However, import turnover of our country’s seafood in some other markets in Europe grew insignificantly, such as Italy increased only 0.4% and Spain increased only 0.1%.

According to the Customs, at the end of May, the country’s total seafood exports achieved US$ 3.208 billion, up 13.3% compared to the same period last year. This is the largest export commodity in the agriculture sector and is ranked seventh of Vietnam’s ten largest export commodities.

At the end of May, 7 markets reached a turnover of more than US$ 100 million. Apart from Holland and England, the largest importer of Vietnamese seafood was Japan with a turnover of US$ 497 million, followed by the US with US$ 491 million, China US$ 396.6 million, South Korea US$ 313.7 million and Thailand with US$ 109 million.

The expansion of seafood export markets is boosted to limit the dependence on some certain markets as before. According to the statistics from customs, seafood products are presented at almost all the markets that are our large trading partners.

In addition to important markets mentioned above, the Vietnam association of seafood exporters and producers (VASEP), ASEAN and Middle East regions are also potential seafood export markets.

For example, in ASEAN, by the end of 2017, Vietnamese seafood products were exported to 9 countries in the region and collected US$ 612 million. VASEP is expecting that exports to the ASEAN region will hit US$ 1 billion.

In which, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore are the largest importers of Vietnamese seafood. Specifically Thailand, the import turnover increased from US$ 27 million in 1998 to US$ 248 million in 2017, equivalent to an increase of 816%