Seafood export turnover might reach $8.6 billion this year

Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, seafood exports look set to achieve a turnover of US$8.6 billion this year as signs of improvement have been shown in the last months of the year.

Seafood exports look set to achieve turnover of US$8.6 billion this year. Photo: Le Hoang Vu.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, seafood exports look set to achieve a turnover of US$8.6 billion this year as signs of improvement have been shown in the last months of the year.

Seafood exports have started to recover from July this year and achieve two-digit growth since September, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Specifically, seafood exports increased by 10 per cent in September compared to the same period last year. 

The country raked a record of $919 million in October and $868 billion in November with a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively.

Thanks to 2-digit growth in the past three months, seafood exports from the beginning of the year to the end of November reaped over $7.8 billion, equal to last year’s figure. Thereby, VASEP forecasts that seafood exports for 2020 will be $8.58 billion – the same value as last year.

The association attributed the positive results to the fact that shrimp export has maintained a stable growth.

By the end of November, shrimp exports reached about $3.5 billion, up nearly 14 per cent over the same period last year. 

Shrimp exports for this year are expected to garner over $3.85 billion, an increase of 15 per cent against last year’s figure.

The recovery of fisheries exports in the past few months also contributed significantly to the increase in seafood export value of this year.

Fisheries exports decreased sharply in March and May, down 47 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively. Then, it has begun having positive growth since August.

After rising sharply by 15 per cent in September, fisheries export increased 2 per cent in October and 8 per cent in November to reach about $305 million.

Vietnam's total seafood export value hit over $2.9 billion by the end of November, decreased slightly by 1.2 per cent over the same period last year. It is expected that fisheries exports for this year will reach nearly $3.2 billion, roughly equals to last year’s figure.