April 29, 2009

Vietnam has seen a drop in seafood export revenue in the first four months, the first time over the past 10 years, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said.

 

Seafood exports declined year-on-year by 7.1 percent in the first four months of this year to US$1.058 billion, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

 

In the first three months, the value of seafood exports declined 7 percent to US$744 million compared with the same period last year.

 

However, in April alone, the export value of the fisheries industry increased US$17 million to US$310 million compared with March.

 

MARD deputy minister Luong Le Phuong said the decline in the first four months was due to falling demand in key seafood export markets, such as the US, the EU and Japan due to the global economic downturn.

 

According to MARD, in the first four months, the export value of Vietnamese seafood to the EU dropped 13 percent, while it dropped 9 percent to Japan and 3.3 percent to the US, MARD said.

 

The export value of tra and basa catfish declined 2.46 percent to US$265 million compared with the first four months of last year.

 

Shrimp exports fared little better, falling by 3.9 percent in volume to 27,800 tonnes and 6.6 percent in value to US$234 million in the first four months of this year.

 

The export value declined 10 percent to US$48 million for cuttlefish and octopus products and 11.3 percent to US$23 million for dried seafood products compared with the first four months in 2008.

 

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said it was worried about the decline in export value of seafood compared with previous years because it would make it harder for the sector to reach its export target of US$4.5 billion this year, which was the same target as last year.

 

However, VASEP expected Vietnamese seafood exporters to increase the seafood price as the sector has also found new export markets such as Spain.

 

Furthermore, the export value of some seafood products increased little from mid-March.

 

The export value of Vietnamese seafood to Spain increased 5 percent to US$30 million in April compared with the figure for March.

 

This month, the export value of frozen shrimp rose month-on-month to South Korea by 17.8 percent to US$15.5 million, making it the fifth largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp, while value of frozen shrimp to ASEAN increased by 16.1 percent to US$36.2 million.

Meanwhile, Russia began re-importing Vietnamese tra catfish products this month.

 

Vietnam expects to have 30 more Vietnamese seafood exporters receiving licences to export to the EU after a delegation of inspectors from Europe visited the country between April 21 and 30 to inspect suppliers.

 

So far, 301 Vietnamese seafood exporters are permitted by the EU to export their products to Europe.