HANOI: Exports of Vietnam seafood products generated USD 8,320 million in revenues in 2017, a figure that represents a year-on-year growth of 18 percent, according to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD). The main markets for Vietnamese seafood exports were the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea, which together accounted for 55.3 percent of the total value of shipments of fish and shellfish abroad.
China was the market that experienced the highest growth last year, at 64.4 percent. The Netherlands (48.6 percent), the United Kingdom (36.4 percent), Korea (29.1 percent), Canada (22.3 percent) and Japan (20 percent) followed. Shrimp exports gave the largest contribution to the total value of Vietnamese seafood exports: they grew by 21 percent from 2016 and generated USD 3,800 million. The increase in the shrimp export price, raw material higher quality and a greater volume of processed products contributed to this growth, said the Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters of Vietnam (VASEP).
Vietnamese tuna exports also grew, by 16 percent, to USD 600 million, and sales abroad of squid and octopus increased by 42 percent, also reaching a total value of USD 600 million. VASEP projects that Vietnamese seafood exports will surpass USD 8,500 million this year, 3 percent more than in 2017, even with more strict controls the US will impose to Vietnamese pangasius, anti-dumping tariffs and measures applied by the European Union to combat IUU fishing.
