August 6, 2011

Vietnam's shrimp exports surge in Jan-July

Vietnam exported 115,000 tonnes of shrimps worth over US$1.1 billion over the past seven months, making up more than a third of its total seafood exports in the same period.

The country shipped around US$500 million of seafood in July, bringing the total export value in January-to-July to US$3.1 billion, up 24.8% on-year.

The price of unprocessed shrimp has increased by VND60,000-70,000 (US$2.91-3.40)/kg. Despite the sharp increase, most processing factories in the Mekong Delta region are currently short of materials, allowing them to only operate at 40-50% of their capacity.

Many businesses rushed to purchase unprocessed shrimp, causing a huge surge in the product's price.