July 13, 2012

Vietnam's January-April shrimp imports from Thailand up three folds

In January-April 2012, Vietnam's shrimp imports from Thailand tripled to 2,860 tonnes, said Bunjonk Nissapawanich, president of the Thai Eastern Shrimp Association.

Nissapawanich attributed the growth to Thailand's low shrimp price, which has been falling steadily from US$5.55 per kilogramme from January to US$4.02 per kilogramme.

Vietnamese firms are buying Thai's shrimp to provide input material for local processing plants who cannot secure a domestic input source due to widespread unknown diseases in Vietnam's shrimp growing areas.

Thai's shrimp output is forecast to rise between 10% and 20% to 650,000-720,000 tonnes in 2012.

Shrimp is an export staple of Vietnam's seafood industry and the country expected to earn roughly US$2.5 billion from shrimp export this year. Vietnam ships its shrimp products to 70 international markets, the biggest of which are Japan and the US, are the biggest importers.