June 15, 2012

Vietnamese seafood exporters' number down 50%

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that the number of Vietnamese seafood exporters has dropped significantly from 800 companies last year to 473 units to date.

The decrease, however, has not influenced the country's total export value, since the firms who departed had low export revenues, the association said. In January-May 2012, Vietnam's seafood exports still increased 9.8% on year to reach US$2.3 billion, the VASEP noted.

Despite positive increase in terms of value, seafood exporters are now facing numerous difficulties for their business, including shortage of raw materials for processing and insufficient capital for production and increasing input cost.

Slumping demand for Vietnamese seafood in the EU, the country's largest seafood importer due to euro zone debt crisis was also problematic, the VASEP said, adding that Vietnam's seafood exports to the market slipped by 7.9% on year with shrimps and pangasius fish witnessing the strongest decreases.

In order to better facilitate seafood exporters in the coming months, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has recently proposed two stimulus packages of credits worth US$209.5 million.

The proposal, which will be submitted to the prime minister for approval, included a US$95.2 million package for raw material purchasers and US$114.3 million for pangasius fish breeders.