Vietnam to Promote Seafood in EU

Vietnam to Promote Seafood in EU

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has announced it will carry out its first overseas fisheries promotion campaign entitled "Vietnamese Seafood Days", which will focus in shrimp and fish as part of the international seafood fair held in Brussels, Belgium in late April.

The large-scale marketing program, a co-operation between Vietnam’s fisheries sector and the National Trade Promotion Program, has only recently been passed by the Government. Around 18 Vietnamese seafood producers registered to take part, VASEP announced.

According to VASEP, the programme will comprise of two parts, including a workshop, scheduled on April 27, with around 200 guests from seafood processing enterprises, traders, distributors, officials, and journalists from European countries.

The second part will be a food festival, which will present cuisines made of tra and basa catfish and shrimp on April 28-30. A cooking contest between Vietnamese and European chefs will be held during the festival, giving visitors a chance to taste Vietnamese seafood free of charge while enjoying Vietnamese folk art performances.

Belgium, the largest importer of Vietnamese seafood in the EU, is also the site for many world-leading seafood distributors, and a major market for Vietnamese seafood products in Europe.

Last year Vietnam earned over USUS$2.3 billion from seafood exports, equivalent to 90 per cent of 2003. The country’s export turnover from the US declined last year, due to the imposing of anti-dumping tax rates on shrimp and tra and basa catfish. However, its exports to the European Union (EU), Japan and other Asian countries grew, with a growth of 84.6 per cent in quantity and 88.1 per cent in value in the EU. Around 153 Vietnamese seafood companies meet standards to export their products to the EU.

In the past two months, Vietnam obtained around USUS$280 million from seafood exports, 0.7 per cent up year on year. The country is forecast to earn USUS$2.6 billion from seafood exports this year.

VNS