August 4, 2011

Vietnam ranks third in shrimp exports to US, Japan 

Vietnam is lagging behind Thailand and Indonesia in shrimp shipments to the US and Japan between January and April this year, according to the Vietnamese media on Tuesday (Aug 2).

The country, the largest supplier of shrimp to the two markets in the past five years since 2006, exported 8,752 tonnes of shrimp in the US and Japan in the first four months this year while Thailand exported 11,700 tonnes and Indonesia shipped 10,580 tonnes.

Vietnam's shrimp exports in Japan have declined in the second quarter. In April, the country's exports fell 17.7% in volume and 14.7% in value and in May, the falling trend continued with 31.8% and 3.4%, respectively.

In June, the shrimp exports from Vietnam to Japan dropped 19.1% in volume and 12.2% in value from the same period last year.

The biggest problem for Vietnamese shrimp is the product quality. Japanese authorities are inspecting all the shrimp import batches from Vietnam to detect harmful substances Trifluralin and Enrofloxacin.

During January-June, Vietnamese firms exported 101,872 tonnes of shrimp worth US$971 million, including 19,344 tonnes worth US$216.5 million in the US, up 28.7% and 40.8% on year, respectively.

However, Thailand has cemented its position as the biggest shrimp exporter to the US with 150 firms.