Shrimps: A key export for Vietnam

June 02, 2012 | 08:22

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The turnover from Vietnamese fisheries exports in May hit $500 million, raising the sector’s total export revenue for the first five months of this year to $2.3 billion, up by 9.8 per cent over the same period last year.

illustration photo

The key products are still shrimp, fish and shellfish.

Japan remains the largest market for Vietnamese shrimp, making up 26.9 per cent of the country’s total shrimp export revenue, followed by the US which imported $150 million worth of shrimp, a four percent year-on-year increase.

Asia proved to be a promising market for Vietnamese shrimp, while the Australian market saw an impressive rise of 70 per cent in shrimp imports, passing Canada and has become Vietnam’s 6 th largest shrimp market.

Meanwhile, several experts pointed out that there are still no positive signals coming from the EU market due to impacts of public debt and the recession in Europe , compounded by tariff barriers. A significant drop could be seen in all three of Vietnam ’s main EU markets, namely Germany , the UK and France.

Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), said that few of its members can meet the high standards demanded by the EU on imported shrimp.

After falling in price for quite a while, the cost of prawns for processing has now recovered to reach from between VND140.000 to VND195.000 per kilo, an increase of VND3.000 to VND5.000 per kilo over last week.

VIR/VNA

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