May 24, 2012

 

Vietnam's seafood exporters have declined during the first quarter of this year, due to a dearth of capital and reduced exports.

 

The number of seafood exporters skid by 300 to 500 in the first quarter of 2012, according to the General Department of Taxation's official report, VASEP said.

 

This development is expected to affect yearly export targets, commented Nguyen Hoai Nam, VASEP's deputy general secretary.

 

Many of the companies in question had gone bankrupt, he noted, VNS reports.

 

Nam blamed the economic crisis tightening its grip across the globe, stricter credit policies and falling operational capital for the problems that seafood producers are up against.

 

On the other hand, fewer seafood exporters may help the fisheries industry become more sustainable, opined Duong Ngoc Minh, VASEP's deputy chairman.

 

The firms that put an end to their exporting operations generally did not have processing factories of their own, he said, and they had shut down their businesses because they did not have enough export orders.

 

Minh said he believes the fisheries sector must cut the number of companies in need of capital, proper management and insufficient investment.

 

VASEP announced that in the second quarter of this year, 92.3% of seafood firms said they needed a working capital of between US$476,190 and US$23.81 million.

 

Meanwhile, the fisheries industry's exports amounted to US$1.5 billion in the first four months of 2012, representing a on-year increase of 12.5%, VASEP said.

 

Vietnam seafood exports have achieved over US$1.3 billion in Q1, showing a 15% jump from the same period of last year. Unprecedentedly, black tiger shrimp exports fell for three consecutive months while whiteleg shrimp exports improved.

 

The value of seafood exports increased mainly in Asia, whereas in the EU, it skid by 12.2 per cent to US$299.4 million.

 

Other key export markets saw an increase of between 15.6% and 38.1% to between US$38 million and US$296.9 million compared to the same period of 2011, including the US, Japan, South Korea, mainland China and Hong Kong, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Australia.

 

Seafood exports in the second, third and fourth quarters of the year will probably not improve due to the on-going economic crisis and strict quality standards, seafood experts warned.