Shrimp exports to Korea will grow in Q4

After dropping in July and August, shrimp exports to South Korea rebounded in September and will continue to grow throughout the fourth quarter.

A vannamei shrimp pond in Long An. Photo: Thanh Son.

Positive growth in Q4

According to Ms. Kim Thu, shrimp market expert of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Korea is the fifth largest market for Vietnamese shrimp, accounting for about 9.5% of the total value of shrimp exports.

This year, from March to June, shrimp exports to South Korea maintained positive growth. But in July and August, businesses had to reduce operating capacity because of the Covid-19 pandemic causing shrimp exports to Korea to decrease.

In September, shrimp exports to Korea recovered with a growth of 3.6% and reached 30.8 million USD. As such, in the first 9 months of this year, shrimp exports to Korea were still equivalent to the same period last year reaching 261 million USD.

More importantly, growth in September continued to be maintained. Specifically, in the first half of October, shrimp exports to South Korea increased by 26% compared to the first half of October 2020. As a result, from the beginning of the year to the first half of October 2021, Vietnam's shrimp exports to South Korea reached nearly USD278 million, up by 0.9% over the same period.

VASEP claims that the recovery of shrimp exports to the Korean market is part of the plan by shrimp businesses to boost exports to Asian markets taking advantage of the close distance and lower logistics costs compared to European and American markets.

Besides, in the last months of this year, Korean businesses are increasing shrimp imports to meet people's consumption needs for the 2022 Lunar New Year.

In the third quarter of this year, strict social distancing measures to control the pandemic, rising oil prices ... have reduced consumer demand in Korea.

However, with this country's transition to a plan to live with Covid-19 in November, expanding personal consumption, cutting oil taxes, is expected to help boost consumption in Korea. Therefore, Korea's shrimp import demand is expected to grow until the end of the year.

On that basis, VASEP assessed that Vietnam's shrimp exports to Korea in the fourth quarter of this year still recorded positive growth. It is expected that Vietnam's shrimp exports to this market in the entire year of 2021 will increase by 3-5% compared to last year.

Vietnam is the largest shrimp supplier to Korea

Korea mainly imports whiteleg shrimp from Vietnam. The proportion of vannamei shrimp exported to this market accounts for 85% while the proportion of black tiger shrimp accounts for only 4%.

In the first 9 months of this year, Korea increased imports of processed vannamei shrimp and live/fresh/frozen black tiger shrimp by 5% and 12% respectively. In particular, imports of live/fresh/frozen marine shrimp increased the most with an increase of 41%.

Vietnam's main shrimp products exported to Korea include headless, shelled and tailed vannamei, fresh and frozen Nobashi vannamei, fresh and frozen sushi vannamei shrimp, and frozen PD-dipped vannamei shrimp, fresh and frozen PTO split tiger shrimp and frozen PD iron shrimp.

In the first 9 months of this year, the average export price of Vietnam's black tiger shrimp to South Korea ranged from 11.7-14.6 USD/kg while the average export price of vannamei shrimp fluctuated between 7.9-8.3 USD/kg.

According to the International Trade Center (ITC), Vietnam is currently the largest shrimp supplier to Korea. In the first 8 months of this year, South Korea's shrimp imports reached over 541.5 million USD, up by 16% over the same period last year. In which, imports from Vietnam accounted for 44% of the total shrimp import value of Korea.