In spite of struggling in the first half of 2021, tuna exports witnessed an increase by 21% over the same period last year. Businesses wish for early vaccinations for their workers to stabilize production and exportation to 103 markets.
According to Ms. Nguyen Ha, expert for VASEP in the tuna market, particularly in June 2021, exports to key import markets all had positive growth, excluding Japan and Israel with decreasing values by 0.8% and 9% respectively. Vietnamese tuna products have been exported to 103 markets all over the world.
In the U.S. market, after conducting a quick vaccination movement for its citizens, American economy is rapidly recovering. The food service chain, restaurants, hotels, etc. are allowed to reopen, which increases the demand of tuna consumption in this country, boosting imports to increase. Until the end of June 2021, the total tuna export value of Vietnam to the U.S.reached 153 million USD, an increase by nearly 21% over the same period in 2020.
Currently, Vietnam is the second biggest tuna supplier to the U.S.. However, the competitive abilities of several Asian tuna suppliers to America, including Vietnam, have strongly diminished due to high shipping costs. Although Vietnamese tuna export to this market still increases, the growth is pacing down.
Tuna export of Vietnam to the EU also continues to grow . Particularly in June 2021, the export value to this market reached nearly 13 million USD, up by 49% on a year-over-year basis. This figure has raised the total export value in the first half of 2021 to over 74 million USD, up by 31% over the same period. Noticeably, in June, tuna export to Spain has skyrocketed by 971% over the same period. With this growth, Spain rose to become the third biggest single market in the EU importing tuna from Vietnam.
Moving to the CPTPP market, until the end of June 2021, the total tuna export value to this market reached 46 million USD, accounting for nearly 13%, up by 16% compared to the last period. In June 2021, export value to the biggest market in CPTPP, which is Canada, reached 3.6 million USD, an increase by nearly 201%. Tuna export to this market is increasing rapidly.
Another noticeable market in the CPTPP in the first 6 months this year is Mexico, which had a significant growth by 157%, reaching 1.3 million USD in June. After continuous decrease in the first quarter of 2021, tuna export to Mexico experienced constant increase. Until the end of June, tuna export value to Mexico reached over 6 million USD, up by 53% year on year.
According to Ms. Nguyen Ha, in addition to several key markets, Vietnamese tuna exports to some small markets, such as Russia, Ukraine, Lebanon, Korea and Argentina also had remarkable increases over the same period, with the growth by 70%, 100%, 35%, 87% and 79% respectively.
Just like any other fishery enterprises, Vietnamese tuna enterprises also experience numerous difficulties, including increasing production cost, increasing fee of hiring containers, constantly increasing shipping cost, etc. However, the national tuna export in the first half of 2021 still witnessed an increase by 21% over the same period, reaching 355 million USD, thanks to the unremitting efforts and market acumen of tuna enterprises.
It can be seen that Vietnamese tuna export to various markets continues overcoming struggles in order to grow. Nevertheless, the export growth has been slowing down.
According to feedback from tuna export enterprises, the increasing shipping costs caused many orders to be stuck and unable to export. In addition, the recent outbreaking COVID-19 pandemic wave in HCMC spreading through other places has consequently affected the production of tuna enterprises. Therefore, the biggest wish of enterprises at this moment is to be prioritized to get vaccinated due to their high risks of infection when working in such an unusual environment of the fishery sector – the cold environment.
Source: Le Thu, Hai Quan Online via Tep Bac
