Shrimp and pangasius continue to face difficulties

At the press conference introducing the Vietnam International Seafood Exhibition 2013 (Vietfish 2013), Mr. Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that in the first 5 months of 2013, the country's seafood exports reached about 2.28 billion USD, down 2.6% compared to the same period in 2012.

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It is worth noting that the export turnover of pangasius in the past five months only reached about 670 million USD (down 6.7% compared to the same period last year). Vietnam's main pangasius import markets all decreased, of which the EU decreased by 17%, Mexico decreased by 7.3%, and Colombia decreased by 3.4%.

With the decline in pangasius export turnover, in the first five months of 2013, for the first time, seafood products (including tuna, squid, octopus, molluscs, etc.) surpassed pangasius in export turnover. Because by the end of May 2013, although export turnover decreased sharply by nearly 21.5%, the total export turnover of seafood products still reached 777.8 million USD.

Among seafood export items, tuna had the strongest increase (10.2%) reaching 251 million USD, bivalve molluscs increased slightly by about 1.3%, while items such as squid, octopus, crab, and swimming crab exports decreased in many markets.

Mr. Hoe said that in the coming months, tra fish exports may not grow due to the impact of anti-dumping tax barriers from the US market and difficulties from the European market. Vasep forecasts that by the end of June 2013, tra fish export turnover will reach about 800 million USD, down 7.6% compared to the first 6 months of 2012. What is especially important is that in the coming months, tra fish exporting enterprises will face a shortage of raw materials for processing because tra fish output in the second quarter only reached about 312,000 tons, down 20% compared to the same period.

Meanwhile, although seafood products are still on the decline, Vasep believes that by the end of June, the export turnover of these products will reach about 1 million USD, an increase of 1.2% over the same period last year, of which tuna exports will reach about 305 million USD, squid and octopus will reach about 245 million USD, bivalve molluscs and crabs will reach about 85 million USD.

Regarding shrimp, Mr. Hoe said that by the end of May, Vietnam's shrimp export turnover reached about 830 million USD. Although compared to the same period last year, shrimp export turnover increased by about 4.2%, however, export output to South Korea decreased sharply (down 24.4%, reaching 47.4 million USD) due to the Ethoxiquin testing regulation with a residue limit of 0.01 ppm.

Along with difficulties in EU markets, Vasep forecasts that in the first half of 2013, the country's shrimp exports will be at 1.03 billion USD, a slight increase of 1.5% over the same period and there are no signs of improvement from the Korean and EU markets.

From June 25-27, Vasep will organize the Vietnam International Seafood Exhibition 2013 (Vietfish 2013) in Ho Chi Minh City. This year's Fair will have about 230 booths from 163 units. It is expected that during the Fair, the Organizing Committee will hold seminars and trade exchanges with businesses from Japan, Sweden and Belgium to share experiences and sign cooperation contracts. In this Fair, the number of Vietnamese seafood exporting businesses is about 20 less than last year. Among them, many large tra fish exporting businesses from previous years will also be absent.

According to Kinhtenongthon – HV