Despite worries, this year's shrimp export is still a bright spot

Processing shrimp for export at FMC Company. Photo: provided by the company

Top 5 largest shrimp exporting countries

Seafood exports in 2021, with an estimated result of nearly US$9 billion, can be considered a miracle in the context of extreme difficulties due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, in addition to the outstanding efforts of businesses, the above results are thanks to the Government's Resolution 128/NQ-CP with its flexible and adaptive anti-pandemic policy, helping seafood exports quickly recover in the last months of 2021, creating momentum for 2022.

Many seafood enterprises themselves have also made great efforts and flexibility, finding measures to reserve raw materials to ensure the maintenance of finished product processing, overcoming huge difficulties of a lack of ships and containers, high production costs and freight charges.

With the above export value, Vietnam is in the Top 5 largest shrimp exporting countries in the world, ranked 4^th after India, Ecuador, and Indonesia.

Vietnamese businesses took advantage of market opportunities when India and Indonesia were severely affected by the pandemic (at that time, the pandemic was still under control in Vietnam); the demand for shrimp is still high, the global shrimp consumption market is stable, not affected much by diseases like pangasius; importers believe in the supply ability of Vietnamese shrimp enterprises, so they have transferred many orders to Vietnam when other major suppliers face difficulties.

The notable point of the Vietnamese shrimp industry in 2021 is to maintain good growth in the US market. According to the VASEP, the demand for US shrimp imports from Vietnam has been stable since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out around the world.

In the first 11 months of this year, shrimp exports to the US reached US$984 million, up by 22% compared to the same period last year and accounting for 28% of the total value of Vietnam's shrimp exports. It is forecast that Vietnam's shrimp exports to the US will continue to grow until the first quarter of 2022.

Still many concerns

Regarding seafood export opportunities in 2022, Truong Dinh Hoe said that the production and export of seafood in 2021 brought many valuable lessons for seafood production and export in 2022.

Seafood exports in 2022 will continue to grow. The global demand for seafood is still growing by about 5% per year. If Vietnam's seafood industry makes good use of the increase in world demand to increase its market share, and at the same time continues to promote processing of value-added products, it is possible to maintain its growth in the next year.

According to businesses, the whole seafood industry reached the goal with a different mentality. There are businesses that are happy, but there are businesses that are still hesitant for the future, and there are many businesses that are worried because they have not completed many contracts.

According to Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, the whole industry has reached the finish line, but not many businesses will maintain the same efficiency as last year. This is because the rent for empty containers to markets as far away as North America and the EU has increased so much.

Especially, the United States is Vietnam's largest shrimp market with the largest increase in the cost of renting a container to transport shrimp. That increase may be higher than the profit for the shipment within the container. The inefficiency is also caused by many other reasons, such as input materials, labor costs and medical costs for prolonged screening.

The highlight of the last year is that the shrimp industry value chain is maintained, the shrimp production and supply chain is not broken. This is the very foundation for this year's recovery.

In addition, it creates opportunities for the processing sector, the number of workers returning to their hometown is quite high and some of them have no intention of going back to work in industrial cities anymore. This is a motivation for businesses to expand their scale or build new factories, which also stimulates the growth of farming.

However, the damage in the past year impacted the financial potential of the shrimp industry, limiting investment in expansion; disease forecasts are not really clear even though people have had booster shots; the inflation taking place on a global scale will directly affect farmers' income and product prices of enterprises; insecurity is more or less in everyone's mind because difficulties are still lurking, while risks can come unexpectedly.