Leading markets of Vietnamese seafood imports

Processing tuna for export. Photo: T.H

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, in February 2021, due to the Lunar New Year holiday, the total seafood export of the whole country decreased by over 17% compared to the same period last year, reaching above US$410 million. However, in fact, exports are tending to recover because the value of exports to many markets has increased sharply and many exporting companies still have significantly higher sales compared to the same period last year.

Accordingly, in February 2021, Vietnam exported seafood to 104 markets around the world, while in the same period in 2020, Vietnam exported to 115 markets. The top 10 single markets with the highest seafood import turnover from Vietnam in February, including the US, Japan, Korea, China, Canada, Australia, Thailand, UK, Russia and the Netherlands, accounted for 75.4% of the total seafood export of Vietnam.

In February 2020, Hong Kong and Singapore were both in the top 10 seafood import markets of Vietnam, but in February this year, exports to these two markets fell sharply, down 64% and 83% respectively, so they fell away from the top 10. Instead, there is a share of Russia with 57% increase in imports from Vietnam and the upgrade of the Dutch market, although exports to this market also decreased by 14%.

Exports to the US market are still in top form, after increasing by 25% in January, continuing to increase by nearly 10% in February, while exports to Canada continued to break through with an increase of 31% in February and became the 4th largest market (accounting for 4.6% of Vietnam's seafood exports this month), after only the US (21%), Japan (7.8%), Korea (9.2%) and China (8.3%).

Notably, there was a spectacular return of China with an import increase of 114% in February, after a 10% decline in January. This recovery brings optimism to seafood exports in the following months.

In addition, exports to the UK and many other markets also increased sharply in February 2021. Exports to the UK increased by 8%, to Italy by 123%, to Israel by 38%, and to Peru by 111%.

The export results in February continued to show the positive impact of the CPTPP and EVFTA agreements on Vietnamese seafood, as exports to the majority of countries participating in the agreement maintained positive growth compared to the same period last year.