June 22, 2011

Vietnam to reap more profit from seafood exports

Vietnam is expected to earn between US$490-US$500 million in June and July per month, thanks to price hikes on the world market.

The monthly seafood export volume is likely between 130,000 and 140,000 tonnes during the period.

The US, the EU, and Japan are forecast to remain major import markets for Vietnamese seafood products, especially pangasius fish.

Vo Thanh Ha, head of the Northeast Asia Division of the ministry's Asia-Pacific Department, said that the Japanese market still offered exciting opportunities for the export of shrimp in the next few months as Japanese consumers currently preferred imported frozen seafood to fresh local seafood that might contain radioactive elements following Japan's recent nuclear disaster.

Ha added that Vietnam was currently the largest shrimp supplier to the Japanese market, holding a 23% market share which amounts to roughly US$1.9 billion each year.

A recent Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)'s report on seafood export has forecast that the monthly seafood export revenues would range from US$520 million to US$625 million in the second half of 2011.

The MARD report forecast that the annual export value would climb from an earlier expected US$5.3 billion to over US$6 billion.

During the first five months of the year, Vietnam exported 526,000 tonnes of seafood, totaling US$2.1 billion, up 10.43% and 29% in terms of volume and value, respectively.

In May alone, seafood exports reached 120,000 tonnes, valued at US$480 million, the highest monthly export levels in both volume and value thus far this year.