HANOI: Vietnamese shrimp exports experienced a slight decrease in the first two months of this year from the same period in 2016, by generating USD 378 million in income, reported Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters & Producers (VASEP).
According to VASEP, this decline (0.1 percent) took place in the context of the increase in technical barriers from importing markets and the drop in the demand for the species in the world market due to high inventory.
Besides, during the two-month period the supply of raw shrimp was limited and more expensive, causing factories to lack raw material for production.
Compared to February a year ago, the proportion of white shrimp for exports increased, the one of black tiger shrimp exports decreased and in the case of marine shrimp there was also increase.
During the analysed period, frozen/live white shrimp reached the highest value of USD 129.3 million and processed white shrimp ranked in second place with USD 109.1 million.
The top ten main markets included Japan, the European Union, the United States, China, South Korea, Canada, Australia, ASEAN countries, Taiwan and Switzerland, accounting for 95.4 percent of Vietnam shrimp exports.
In February 2017, Vietnam shrimp export value to the US and China decreased by 25 percent and 8.6 percent, respectively. In contrast, Japan, the EU, Korea and Canada were prominent markets with good growth. In particular, exports to Japan grew at best 33.6 percent, South Korea experienced a rise of 18.8 percent; the EU had a 16,2 percent growth and Canada reached 16,6 percent.
In the first two months this year, Japan rose to the top position on Vietnamese shrimp imports, accounting for 21.4 percent, the EU ranked second with 19.5 percent. The US dropped to the third position, accounting for only 18.6 percent of total exports of the crustacean.
During the analysed period, the EU and Japan were two markets showing positive signs of recovery in shrimp imports from Vietnam. Exports to Japan, which began recovering in August 2016, continued growing until February this year.
Within the EU, exports to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands grew by 4.3 percent and 127.1 percent, respectively, while exports to Germany decreased by 11.5 percent.
In the first two months this year, exports of the crustacean to the US experienced a decrease of 25 percent compared to the same period of 2016.
