HÀ NỘI: Việt Nam gained its highest ever seafood export value of US$8.32 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 18 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The US, Japan, China and South Korea were the top four export markets for Vietnamese seafood products, accounting for 55.3 per cent of the total national export value. Việt Nam’s export markets with strong growth in seafood export value included China (up 64.4 per cent), the Netherlands (up 48.6 per cent), the UK (up 36.4 per cent), South Korea (up 29.1 per cent), Canada (up 22.3 per cent) and Japan (up 20 per cent). The Việt Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said shrimp exports provided the biggest contribution to the total national seafood export value, with a growth rate of 21 per cent to $3.8 billion in export value for 2017. The strong growth in shrimp exports was mainly due to confidence of export markets for Vietnamese shrimp products, said Trương Đình Hòe, VASEP general secretary. Other reasons for strong growth in shrimp exports included an increase of 10 per cent in export shrimp price, higher quality of material and high volume of processed products, Hòe said. Shrimp export value increased by 60 per cent to China, 42 per cent to the US, 33 per cent to South Korea and 18 per cent to Japan.
Meanwhile, the export value of tra fish (pangasius) reached nearly $1.8 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent despite difficulties in many export markets. Việt Nam’s tuna export value achieved a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent to $600 million while export value of squid and octopus stood at about $600 million, gaining strong growth of 42 per cent. A surprising point regarding Việt Nam’s seafood exports in 2017 was that China surpassed the US as the top export market of Việt Nam’s tra and shrimp products. China was the leading export market of Vietnamese tra fish with a year-on-year surge of 37 per cent in 2017 to $420 million and the third largest shrimp export market of domestic shrimp products after the EU and Japan. Việt Nam gained a year-on-year increase of 60 per cent from the export value of shrimp to China to $677 million.
