January 7, 2013

 

Vietnam's shrimp industry to boost exports in 2013

 

 

For 2013, Vietnamese shrimp companies aim to increase exports to compensate for economic hardship and obstacles set by importing markets.

 

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers' (VASEP) shrimp export target has jumped by 6.5% against 2012 at US$2.4 billion for the year.

 

VASEP told that Vietnam will be able to reach this target if it takes care of the following burdens: disease outbreaks, the raw shrimp shortage and the ethoxyquin issue.

 

By looking at last year, however, the new target might not seem as feasible as Vietnam had exported US$2.25 billion worth of shrimp to 92 countries, down 6.3% compared to 2011. According to Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of VASEP, this was the first time Vietnam did not reach its export target.

 

As far as the barrier consisting of low ethoxyquin limit in imported shrimp imposed by some foreign markets, Le Van Quang, chairman of Minh Phu Seafood Corporation in Ca Mau, is advocating for legal recourse.

 

"I think we should file a lawsuit. Otherwise, the countries that have erected ethoxyquin barriers would raise them further and thus Vietnam could never pass," he said.

 

Last year, the issue again proved controversial at a conference on shrimp disease prevention and the plan for brackish water shrimp aquaculture in 2013 hosted halfway through December in Ben Tre.

 

Le Van Quang highlighted that these kinds of technical barriers are the culprits when farmers and the rest of the industry end up facing higher costs of production, processing and export of Vietnamese shrimp. But not everyone agrees on the issue of whether to take legal action.

 

"Who should we file a lawsuit against?" Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat asked. He stressed that Vietnam must solve the matter with wisdom if it wants to ensure higher exports, lest it lose export markets to overseas competitors. He also suggested that Vietnam should take a diplomatic approach in combination with measures to boost the management of domestic shrimp farming.

 

"The State should pay special attention. Apart from the measures to limit risks during the farming process, it is a must to have strong measures for diplomatic struggle so as to request Japan to adjust its acceptable levels," he said.

 

The conference saw the debate of whether Vietnamese companies should focus on exporting shrimp to markets that are not as strict with ethoxyquin levels, such as the U and the US, instead of markets including Japan -- Vietnam's biggest market for shrimp exports -- and South Korea, which have been rejecting some shipments due to the detection of high ethoxyquin levels.