Potential of exporting shrimp to Canada

Canada is ranked sixth for importing Vietnamese shrimp, accounting for 5.7% of total amount of export shrimp. Exporting Vietnamese shrimp to Canada in the first months of the year still recorded two digits of growth rate in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Processing shrimp for exporting. Photo: N.Thanh

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), in the first four months of this year, Vietnam's shrimp exports to Canada reached $49.4 million, up 31.2% over the same period last year. In April, exporting shrimp to this market increased by nearly 51% to more than $13 million.

As of the first half of May, exporting shrimp to Canada market is $54.7 million, up by nearly 32% over the same period last year. Since the beginning of the year, exporting shrimp to Canada decreased only in January, and increased in the remaining months by two digits.

Vietnam's shrimp exports to Canada grew from 2016 to 2018, slightly decreased in 2019 and recovered positive growth in the first months of this year. Canada is considered a potential market of Vietnamese shrimp.

Canada consumes a lot of warm water shrimp of Southeast Asian countries in the context of a reduction in the supply of coldwater shrimp. According to a recent survey, shrimp accounts for half of all seafood products imported into Canada and the trend of buying shrimp for home processing among Canadian households is increasing. In the first months of this year, Canada was also one of the countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 97,000 cases of infection and nearly 8,000 deaths. Buying processed shrimp for cooking at home is also quite common in Canada.

Vietnam is the second largest supplier of shrimp to Canada. In terms of export prices, Vietnamese shrimp has the highest price among competitors in the Canadian market. The government of Canada has a high demand for diversifying markets and reducing dependence on imports from the US, and Vietnam is one of the countries where Canadian businesses are interested in promoting import and export activities.