April 23, 2014

Despite the trend of increasing imports of vannamei shrimp over black tiger in many consumer markets, Vietnamese black tiger shrimp exports to Australia remained stable in 2013, notes the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The demand for vannamei in markets such as the US, Japan and EU led to changes in structure of Vietnam's shrimp products exported to global markets last year. However, Vietnamese black tiger shrimp exports to Australia remained stable at a proportion of over 60%.

With an annual output of 300,000 tonnes, Vietnam now is the largest producer of black tiger shrimp in the world.

Meanwhile, black tiger shrimp accounts for only 0.4% (2,000 tonnes) and 5% (60,000 tonnes) of the total shrimp production by Thailand and China respectively.

Frozen raw shrimp imported into Australia accounts for the country's largest proportion of crustacean imports into the market.

According to statistics of the World Trade Centre (ITC), raw frozen shrimp accounts for the largest share of 82.2% and the rest is frozen crab and other products.

Imports of raw frozen shrimp into the market reported a continuously positive growth of 7.5% to 37% in the last five years. In 2013, the market imported over US$232.8 million of frozen shrimp, up 14.9% on-year.