EVFTA brings great expectations for seafood exports to the EU

Mrs. Le Hang, Communications Director of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (Vasep).

How has the seafood industry taken advantage of the opportunities from the EVFTA in the past two years, madam?

The EU used to be the No. 1 market for Vietnamese seafood, but then it fell to the fourth position after Japan, China, and the United States due to the consecutive decline in export volume to this market.

However, things did an about-face thanks to the effectiveness of the EVFTA in August 2020. The main groups of aquatic products have all benefited. Specifically, in 2021, after the EU reopened the market, water exports to the EU increased sharply, reaching over 1 billion USD, up 12% compared to 2020. In 2022, in the context of inflation but preferential tariffs, The incentives of EVFTA have been revealed. Seafood exports to the EU maintained a growth rate of 28% in July 2022, and the cumulative seven months reached US$829 million, up 39% over the same period in 2021. The above results show that enterprises have taken advantage of market opportunities and tariff opportunities to boost exports to the EU market.

Besides the favorable factors, can you explain more about the vast challenges of seafood enterprises when promoting exports to the EU market?

The key is to ensure the rules of origin in the EVFTA. Although Vasep and the Ministry of Industry and Trade have had many cooperation programs to train businesses to ensure the certification of origin, inevitably, businesses will not learn carefully. Moreover, each market has its own controls, leading to misunderstandings about the issuance of Certificates of Origin (C/O), and difficulties in meeting the rules of origin.

In addition, another challenge is that Vietnam is still being warned by the European Commission (EC) "yellow card" against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This is a limiting factor when exporting seafood to the EU. In addition, the EU's inflation increased; The euro-dollar exchange rate is the lowest in 20 years, prompting consumers to tighten their spending. Finally, it must also be added that Vietnamese seafood is also under pressure to compete with other competitors in the EU market, typically competition for shrimp from India and Ecuador due to supply and carriage costs.

In the long term, the EU market's increasingly higher certification or environmental and labor requirements are also a serious problem for Vietnamese seafood exploiting the EU market.

In order to make better use of EVFTA, and "consolidate position" in the EU market, what recommendations and suggestions does the seafood industry propose to state management agencies, madam?

In order to take advantage of opportunities from the EU market, Vietnam must first remove the IUU "yellow card" warning and regain the "green card". If Vietnam is changed from a "yellow card" to a "red card", the risk of losing the EU market is very high. In particular, the EU is in the role of a directional market that dominates other markets in strict control of origin.

Currently, Vietnamese seafood is facing stiff competition from other export markets in the EU because Vietnam's production scale is small, low productivity, and without a centralized production area, leading to limitations in both quality and quantity. Therefore, the State should invest in science and technology for breeding animals and animal feed; strengthen solutions to utilize and process by-products in the fisheries industry because by-products account for about 40-50% of aquatic production.

Regarding the EVFTA, the seafood industry hopes to receive more support from the Import-Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade) to make the most of tariff preferences, best apply rules of origin, and minimize obstacles when exporting seafood products to the EU market.

Thank you very much!