Seafood exports close to US $10 billion

Seafood exports hit a 10-month high.

According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), 2022 is a year of many changes and difficulties for the import-export industry, including the seafood industry. However, with efforts to overcome difficulties, Vietnamese seafood enterprises have turned challenges into opportunities, taking advantage of FTAs ​​and market demand to boost exports in 2022.

As one of the major shrimp exporters of the Mekong Delta, Mr Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that the company's export results were quite high. Specifically, in October 2022, the company produced 1,783 tons of finished shrimp. The community equals 95%; finished shrimp consumption is 1,490 tons. Accumulated ten months equals 103% compared to the same period last year, production of finished agricultural products reaches 98 tons, and cumulative ten months equals 186% over the same period last year, bringing the overall sales in ten months equal to 113% over the same period last year.

With the above efforts, seafood export enterprises have brought positive results. As a result, by the end of October, the country's seafood exports had brought in US$9.5 billion, up 34% over the same period last year.

Shrimp products reached nearly US $3.8 billion, up 19%. With this result, shrimp export in 2022 is expected to reach over US $4.4 billion, up 14% compared to 2021. The main export shrimp products are white leg shrimp, which accounts for 75% with over US $ 3.2 billion; black tiger shrimp, which accounted for about 13% with nearly 1.5 billion USD.

According to Ms Le Hang, Deputy Director of VASEP.PRO Center, in 2022, inflation and the Russia-Ukraine conflict have helped affordable white fish such as pangasius increase export sales to markets. As a result, most markets have increased from 40 to 200% of Vietnam's pangasius imports.

Pangasius exports by the end of October 2022 reached nearly US$2.2 billion, up 80% compared to the same period in 2021. It is expected that in 2022, pangasius exports will reach over UD $2.5 billion, up 58% compared to the same period in 2021.

Tuna exports by the end of October were estimated at US$890 million, up 50% over the same period. In 2022, for the first time, tuna will become an export commodity of over US $1 billion.

Taking advantage of domestic and imported raw materials, tuna businesses process various products, promote the export of frozen loin/filler and canned fish to markets, and flexibly follow market trends in the current Covid period and inflation.

By October 2022, exported squid and octopus products will have achieved sales of US$ 625 million, up 32%. It is estimated that in 2022, the export of this product will reach US $734 million, up 22% compared to 2021.

Currently, the European Commission (EC) inspection team has just checked the situation of overcoming the IUU "yellow card" in Vietnam. After five years of efforts to overcome the warning contents of the EC, Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU are still affected, but they are lightening, which will create opportunities for seafood enterprises to accelerate exports in the last months of 2022.

With the above positive results, it is estimated that by the end of November 2022, Vietnam's seafood exports will reach more than US $10 billion, a historical record for Vietnam's seafood industry after more than twenty years of participating in the world market.

According to VASEP's analysis, in 2022, it is estimated that the seafood industry will account for 3% of Vietnam's total merchandise exports. Compared to the total export turnover of the domestic economic sector, the fisheries sector contributes nearly 12% of the value. While the proportion of the group of agricultural, forestry and fishery products, in general, is decreasing by 0.6% points, the aquatic products industry has increased by 0.4% points, showing a breakthrough and the increasingly important role of the fishery industry in the GDP index of the whole country, especially in the export of agricultural, forestry and fishery products.

On the world seafood export map, Vietnam is currently the 3rd largest exporting country, just behind China and Norway - two superpowers with a much larger land and water surface area than Vietnam. However, with the results of 2022, it is estimated that Vietnam's seafood exports will account for over 7% market share in the world market.