HANOI: Since May, the United Kingdom (UK) has become the leading market for Vietnamese shrimp exports in the European Union with impressive growth, although exports to other markets have slumped.
Statistics of the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep), said the UK was the only market in the bloc where Viet Nam’s shrimp exports posted a positive growth rate of 24.4 per cent in the first eight months of this year. This was compared to the drop of 20.7 per cent and 29.7 per cent of Germany and the Netherlands, respectively.
The impressive growth of shrimp exports to the UK was attributed to the market’s rising demand of warm-water shrimp, according to Vasep.
Vasep said the UK surpassed Germany to become Viet Nam’s largest shrimp export market since May with a turnover of US$72.4 million, accounting for 4 per cent of the country’s total shrimp exports in the eight month period.
Vasep cited statistics of the International Trade Centre (ITC) showing that Viet Nam was the third largest shrimp exporter to the UK in the first seven months of this year, providing 11 per cent of the UK’s shrimp imports, after Canada and India. However, out of the ten largest shrimp exporters to the UK, Viet Nam posted the highest growth rate of 48.4 per cent, followed by Canada with 47.4 per cent.
From the beginning of this year, Viet Nam prevailed in shrimp exports to the UK over other rivals in Southeast Asia region such as India, Thailand and Indonesia whose shrimp exports to the UK dropped 20 per cent, 38 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively in the seven-month period due to higher duties.
“This provides great opportunities for Viet Nam’s shrimp exporters to expand the market share in the UK amid its rising demand for warm-water shrimp,” Vasep said, forecasting that shrimp exports to the UK would continue to rise during the remaining months of the years.
However, the increase would not be huge due to the on-going impacts of the Europe’s economic downturn, Vasep added. Viet Nam’s shrimp exports were on a downward trend from the beginning of this year. In July, Vasep forecast that Viet Nam’s total shrimp export this year could drop by nearly 18 per cent against the previous year to $3.2 billion.
