Vietnam targets 9 billion USD seafood exports

Seafood exports in nine months of 2018 reach 6.4 billion USD and speed up in the last three months to reach over 9 billion USD, says General Secretary of VASEP TrươngĐìnhHòe.

“Shrimp exports may reach 4 billion USD while pangasius might break its record with 2 billion USD. To reach this number, average seafood export must be over 800 million USD”, insists Hòe. Actually there is increasingly high demand in seafood inthe coming Christmas, New Year and Lunar Tet Holiday (Chinese market) and some other opportunities for Vietnamese seafood.

After nine months of declines in sales of shrimps as compared to 2017, European market is thriving in October due to EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA). As shrimp anti-dumping fee in the United State is reducing and the war trade between the US and China just got a lot bigger, Vietnam might see a suitable opportunity for seafood export in the last months of the year.

It is not so difficult for Vietnamese pangasius to reach 2 billion USD as its volume in nine months reaches 1.6 billion USD, up 22.6% year-on-year with noticeable increase in sales recorded in China, the US, EU, and ASEAN. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has affirmed Vietnamese pangasius quality control system satisfies the US requirements, boosting Vietnam’s exports to this market.The US is predicted to take over the first position among the top buyers of Vietnamese pangasius from China.

One of the key exported species is tuna which expects to reach 500 million USD in 2018. The war trade between the United States and China creates favorable opportunities for Southeast Asian countries including Vietnam to take China’s market share in the US market. However, tuna and some species of Vietnam are facing “yellow card” regarding IUU from the EU, thus Vietnam seafood must need hard effort in the competition.

Remove the bottlenecks

Bottlenecks need removing to create such sustainable seafood industry by building sustainable farming system and production chain from young fish to harvest size.

General Director of Sao Ta Foods JSC Hồ Quốc Lực says the most challenge to Vietnamese shrimps is food safety and traceability. 90% of shrimps from households are farmed with unbranded drugs and cannot be traced back. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development just sent an official document to Chairmen of provinces to request the enhancement inpangasius farmingsystem in the last months of the year. Farmers and enterprises are suggested to invest into chain link of pangasius farming to control input materials and quality of young fish. Enterprises are called upon to invest into resources for high quality pangasius production. IUU is considered a bottleneck to be removed as soon as possible.

According to Vasep, it takes years to gain green card and requires a specific plan. Initially, the delegation of EU Parliament highly evaluates BìnhĐịnh’s efforts in fighting against IUU. We are hoping those efforts will result the removal of yellow card warning from Vietnamese seafood.