Seafood Exports to U.S. Sharply Fall

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Export and Processing (VASEP) said that in the first several months of this year, seafood exports to the U.S. saw a sharp decrease. According to the statistic of the General Customs Department, the exports to the U.S. in March fell significantly both in quantity (-13.5 per cent) and value (-15 per cent), with only 15,900 tonnes valued at US$112.6 million.

 

Being Vietnam’s third largest seafood importer, the U.S. now accounts for only 14 per cent of the total seafood exports of Vietnam. Some Vietnamese seafood enterprises said that the sharp fall is attributed to the four reasons. Firstly, since mid 2007 to now, the U.S. economy has seen a recession, and American consumers have cut down their consumption, while seafood, especially shrimp, is listed among luxury goods that need reduction. This has strongly affected Vietnam’s seafood export because shrimp is the key export commodity to the U.S. Secondly, Vietnam’s sugpo prawn is being strongly competed by white-feet shrimp in the EU, U.S. and Japan markets due to its cheaper price and profuse output. Meanwhile, the output of material shrimp in Vietnam does not increase.

The local shrimp raising has seen the unequal development, and the quality of breed is not ensured and fully quarantined. Thirdly, over the past time, the U.S. dollar has witnessed a consecutive depreciation, while Vietnam once incurred the severe shortage of dong, creating difficulties in converting currencies for both export processors and shrimp raisers. Fourthly, the shrimp price in some international markets has not improved while the production costs have kept rising, so shrimp farmers have cooled down their investment in shrimp. Even a small rate of shrimp raising area has been transformed into other more effective cultivation models. Therefore, the shrimp output has been more or less affected.

 

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam’s seafood exports in the first four months of this year reached US$1.148 billion, up 13.,7 per cent against the same period last year. In which, EU was the biggest importer, with the growth of 21.5 per cent, and EU accounted for over 27 per cent of the total seafood export value of Vietnam. The market is forecast to keep growing, in which shrimp saw a strong growth of over 39 per cent of the total. Noticeably, the British market is becoming a “phenomenon” for seafood imports from Vietnam, with the import increase of over 226 per cent in the first several months.

 

The follower is Japan market with the growth of 13.5 per cent, making up 17.4 per cent of the market share. Since the beginning of 2008, Japan has maintained the significant growth. However, authorities warned that since 2007 some markets, including the U.S. and Japan, have been strictly managing dirty-infected food of exporters. So Vietnamese seafood export and processing enterprises should pay great attention to improving the quality of their exports, maintaing the stable growth in the upcoming time.