The European Union already outpaced the United States to become the second biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood last year, behind only Japan, largely due to the market’s stronger demand for local catfish products.
The EU market last year accounted for 21.6 per cent of Vietnam’s total seafood export of USUS$3.31 billion, or USUS$715 million, Deputy Minister of Fisheries Nguyen Ngoc Hong said at a review meeting in HCM City on February 9.
Japan still took the lead, but its share in importing seafood products from Vietnam already fell to 25.3 per cent from 30 per cent in the previous year, while the US consumption also fell from 23 per cent in 2005 to 19.9 per cent last year.
Hong pointed to a surge in shipments of catfish products to Europe as the key reason behind the change of position.
Local processors last year exported 250,000 tons of tra and basa products worth USUS$750 million worldwide and the EU market made up for half of this volume, Hong said.
“Nearly half of Vietnam exported tra and basa products were shipped to the EU last year, which showed a 50 per cent growth rate year-on-year,” he said.
Years earlier, the EU market accounted for a fraction of Vietnam’s total seafood export earnings, at some 10 per cent in 2004 only, the deputy minister stressed.
Hong also hailed efforts by local processors in diversifying products, which was a strong push behind the country’s high growth of seafood exports. Last year’s seafood exports earning showed an on-year rise of 25 per cent.
In 2005, shrimp products accounted for 51 per cent of Vietnam’s seafood exports, but this proportion dropped to 44.3 per cent in 2006, while fish shipments by contrast surged to 22.8 per cent last year from 24 per cent in the previous year.
The ministry targets total seafood export revenue of USUS$3.6 billion this year. (Saigon Times Daily)
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