New opportunities for Vietnamese fresh whole shrimp to enter the Australian market

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam gave an interview to VNA reporters about the prospect of exporting fresh whole shrimp from Vietnam to the Australian market for the first time.

Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam (second from left) gives an interview to VNA reporters in Sydney. Photo: Sao Bang

On the occasion of the working delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development led by Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam, visiting the Australian Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries from September 8-10 to work with the Australian Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on enhancing agricultural cooperation between the two countries, and the Vietnamese seafood business delegation attending the Australian International Food Fair and Vietnam Seafood Week, VNA reporters in Sydney interviewed Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam about the purpose of the working trip and especially the prospect of exporting fresh whole shrimp to the Australian market for the first time.

According to Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam, the working session between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Australian Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries this time has two purposes: one is to discuss solutions to remove difficulties and obstacles to increase agricultural trade between the two countries and the second is to strengthen agricultural cooperation between the two countries in the coming time. During the discussion, Vietnam expressed its priority in exporting fresh whole shrimp to Australia. In addition, it is ready to share information with Australia and clarify some current problems such as a Vietnamese fisherman who violated Australian waters and was arrested and processed by Australian authorities. We also discussed the recent incident in which some businesses importing Australian beef to Vietnam used behaviors that Australia considered offensive, which was inhumane treatment of cows during slaughter.

During the meetings, the Vietnamese delegation also discussed increasing fruit import and export between the two countries. Currently, at our request, Australia has just opened its doors to lychee in 2015 and most recently mango. Some other fruits such as dragon fruit, passion fruit, etc. have also been recognized by Australia. In contrast, we have also opened our market to Australia for 38 fruits and recently in 2014, there was an incident with the fruit garden, so we stopped importing. Australia is urgently requesting Vietnam to consider re-importing cherries or some other fruit products that have advantages from Australia. We also noted this.

Regarding the reason why Vietnam prioritizes exporting whole fresh shrimp to Australia, Deputy Minister Vu Van Tam said that in recent years, Australia has been an export market that accounts for a relatively large proportion of Vietnam's seafood, of which shrimp is the seafood product with the largest export value to Australia. However, in 2015, our shrimp export turnover to Australia decreased by 25.6% and in the first 7 months of 2016, it decreased by another 16% compared to 2015. This is an issue that needs to be discussed with you to find a solution. Secondly, currently, for the Australian market, no country can export whole fresh shrimp to the Australian market, while we really need to open the Australian market to affirm that our technical progress in farming and technology can be guaranteed.

Shrimp harvesting in Quynh Di - Hoang Mai town.

In addition, for the first time, Vietnam's agricultural sector in the first 6 months of 2016 had negative growth, so according to the Government's direction, the agricultural sector must focus on agricultural development in the last 6 months of the year as well as the following years to compensate for the negative growth momentum recently. Among the products identified as having advantages in restoring agricultural production are aquatic products, in which brackish water shrimp is identified as having advantages. That is why recently Vietnam has controlled diseases well, seed quality, input and farming technology as well as models that many large enterprises with modern technology are currently investing in.

Thus, the development of Vietnam's shrimp farming industry has a good signal, the problem now is to solve the market problem. If the market problem is not solved well, it will greatly affect the production as well as the price of shrimp in the country. In the group of market solutions, Vietnam chooses Australia because this is a very potential market and has a great demand for fresh whole shrimp that we have not yet exported. Our current prospects and technological capabilities, as mentioned, are that there are many businesses that can ensure the construction of disease-safe facilities as well as meet the conditions to enter the Australian market.

The Deputy Minister said that during the meeting on September 8, the two sides discussed and reached a high consensus that they would cooperate, and the Australian side showed goodwill and was very interested in Vietnam's priority of exporting whole fresh shrimp to Australia. The two sides agreed that in the fourth quarter of 2016, a delegation of Australian authorities and technical experts would come to quarantine and review the conditions that Vietnam meets to be able to export whole fresh shrimp to Australia. The Deputy Minister expressed his belief that the Vietnamese shrimp farming industry is fully capable of meeting these requirements.

Shrimp harvesting in Nghe An - Photo TL

According to the Vietnam Trade Office in Australia, Australia is a market with a huge demand for seafood with import turnover increasing sharply in recent years, from 868 million USD in 2011 to 1.6 billion USD in 2015 (an increase of 84%). Vietnam is currently one of the four largest seafood suppliers to the Australian market (after Thailand, China and New Zealand), but only accounts for 11.2% of the import market share in this market. In this group of products, shrimp is consumed the most in Australia with an annual consumption of up to 50,000-60,000 tons. In the past 5 years, Vietnam has always been the largest supplier of processed shrimp to Australia. However, due to Australia's strict regulations on shrimp and imported shrimp products, Vietnam is currently only able to export cooked shrimp or shrimp coated with flour and spices, but cannot yet export whole fresh frozen shrimp to Australia. Meanwhile, the demand for whole fresh shrimp in Australia is much larger, causing significant damage to Vietnam's shrimp production and export industry.

According to baotintuc