April 20, 2009
The wholesale price of Vietnamese blue-legged shrimp has seen an increase in Japan, said Vietnam Trade Office's (VTO) branch in Osaka.
VTO said the price in Tokyo increased by 20 percent to JPY1,167 (US$ 11.78) per kilogramme over the price at the end of last year, adding that import price of the shrimp to Japan also increased by US$1.50 to US$2 per kilogramme.
Those increases were attributed to the decline of supply on the world market combined with an increase in demand by Japanese households.
The trend in the last few years had been a decline in demand for imported shrimp in Japan, in which made sales price dropped accordingly last year.
In recent months, however, the Japanese have been going out to eat less and cooking at home more to save money during difficult economic period. The imported frozen shrimp is a popular food item to cook at home.
Demand for shrimp products has increased on the world market, but shrimp processors in Vietnam have lacked shrimp supply for processing for exports.
The lack of material was due to farmers experiencing revenue loss from raising shrimp for export last year, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
The total shrimp farming area nationwide in the first quarter of this year declined 8 percent over the same period of last year.
Ca Mau Province saw a decrease of 264,500 hectare of shrimp farming area, 125,000ha in southern Bac Lieu Province and 45,000 hectare in southern Kien Giang Province.
The lack of material forced 14 out of 26 shrimp processors in Ca Mau Province to temporarily halt production.
Minh Hai Seafood Joint Stock Company director Tran Thien Hai said the company was only able to buy 20 tonnes of shrimp to process daily, while normally it would need 50 tonnes.
Some processors had to accept a 10 to 15 percent increase in the purchasing price of shrimp.
The export value of shrimp in the first quarter of this year declined 1.7 percent to US$144.5 million.
