March 16, 2019

China's shrimp imports from Vietnam has substantially decreased, based on data bared recently by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

According to VASEP, Vietnam's shrimp exports to China in 2018 declined 29% to US$449.8 million year-on-year, in contrast to the positive growth rate of nearly 60% in 2017. Thus, from the third position in 2017, accounting for nearly 18% of Vietnam’s total value of shrimp exports, China dropped to the fourth position in 2018, accounting for nearly 14%.

VASEP said China reduced buying due to a lot of inventory from 2017 and a drop in domestic shrimp price. Moreover, China has increasingly tightened import and export activities through border, affecting exports of shrimp to China.

China was the fastest-growing among the major markets for Vietnamese shrimp during the 10-year period 2008-2017, posting yearly import increases. However, this uptrend was broken in 2018.

China imports more of Vietnam’s black tiger shrimp than its whiteleg shrimp. As of November 2018, whiteleg shrimp accounted for 30.8% of shrimp imports from Vietnam, while tiger shrimp accounted for 64.7%.

Export of black tiger shrimp to China in the first 11 months of 2018 increased 14%, while that of whiteleg shrimp decreased 43% compared with the same period in 2017.

China is the sixth-largest shrimp import market in the world, and Vietnam ranks eighth among the main shrimp suppliers to China, accounting for 1.8% of the market share. Vietnam has to compete with rivals in Asia such as Thailand, which accounts for 16.1% of the China market share; India, 9.7%; and Indonesia, 2% as of 2017.