The European Union (EU) has been a key export market for Vietnamese seafood products for many decades. There is a high likelihood for the boost in seafood export to this potential market in the future when the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is signed.
The production capacity of Vietnam's fisheries sector has rapidly and strongly expanded in recent years. In 2012, total captured and cultured output reached 5.82 million tonnes, more than 4 times as high as in 1995, of which 3.14 million tonnes were farmed and 2.685 million tonnes were wild-caught. Vietnam now has more than 520 aquatic processing plants, of which more than 500 units meet national food safety and hygiene standards. The processing capacity exceeds 1.5 million tonnes a year. Seafood export grossed US$6.134 billion in 2012, which was more than 16 times as high as in 1995 and accounted for 5.3 percent of the country’s total exports and 4 percent of GDP. Currently, Vietnam is the largest tra fish producer, the fourth largest shrimp producer and the fifth largest seafood producer in the world.
The EU has been the third largest importers of Vietnam’s seafood only after the United States and Japan since 2005 with 15 percent of market share. Currently, Vietnam was the 10th largest seafood supplier to the EU, with 2.6 percent of market share in 2012. Price competition of products with guaranteed food safety and quality is the decisive factor to maintain Vietnam’s seafood exports to the EU market. Particularly, EU member countries have funded many capacity-building programmes for Vietnamese fisheries industry like UNIPO, SEAQIP, POSMA - DANIDA, SIPPO.
Remarking on opportunities that Vietnam - EU FTA brings to Vietnam’s fisheries sector, Mr Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said, apart from such advantages as fewer trade remedy measures, access to higher trade promotion channels to deepen penetration into the market via linkage with retailers, increase the opportunity of choosing high-quality supply sources, and easier reception of advanced technologies from the EU, the Vietnam - EU FTA will also provide the opportunity for market expansion for seafood processing industry of Vietnam by importing input materials from third countries for processing in Vietnam and exporting to the EU. In particular, EU businesses will further invest in Vietnam, not only in seafood processing but also farming and related services - the strengths of the EU.
But, opportunities also come along with challenges. Before Vietnam - EU FTA’s impacts on the fisheries sector, Vietnam needs to improve the legal framework for food safety and hygiene in aquatic production chains and meet environmental requirements from the EU, he recommended. The country also needs to pledge to implement environmental protection policies and social responsibility towards sustainable development. In addition, Vietnam must proactively meet strict quality certification requirements from the EU.
According to VASEP Vice President Nguyen Huu Dung, export seafood processors are paying more costs for compliance to regulations on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and resource conservation. Hence, Vietnam - EU FTA must help Vietnam achieve fishery models that meet SPS, certification and market access requirements. To support Vietnamese seafood enterprises to overcome challenges, VASEP also proposed EU soon grant the market economy status to Vietnam and put forth technical assistance framework, cooperation discussion, technical barriers to trade (TBT) and SPS measures, including training, technical support, knowledge transfer and enhanced public services.
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