Vietnam’s seafood exports increased 17 percent in the first three months 2018 with nearly 1.8 billion USD. But it slowed down at 5.7 percent with 2.2 billion USD in the next three months following shrimp export’s slump of 5 percent due to high demand and low price. In July, seafood export value reached 793 million USD, up 7 percent, total seafood export in seven months 2017 thus held 4.78 billion USD, up 8.5% year on year.
Shrimp price is slightly going up, leading the recovery of shrimp export with around 348 million USD in July. The seafood industry earned nearly two billion USD from shrimp export value which is 5.5 percent higher as compared to the same period last year. White leg shrimp ranks the first in the list of exported varieties, accounting for 67 percent and 1.4 billion USD and followed by black tiger shrimp which made 23 percent and 474 million USD, dropping 4%.
Pangasius export value has gained 197 million USD, increasing 17 percent and making total export value of this variety 1.2 billion USD in seven months of 2018. Tuna export increased 12 percent and reached 359 million USD in seven months, up 11 percent year on year.
Octopus, cutterfish and other varieties are standing by following the rare material and IUU yellow card warning. Total export value of cutterfish and octopus in seven months increased 8 percent with 360 million USD while mollusc export fell 10 percent with 55 million USD.
However, shrimp exports are forecasted to rise in the next months due to increasingly high demand and domestic price of shrimp material. Brackish water shrimp is expected to reach 720 thousand tons, 290 thousand tons of which is black tiger shrimp (up 4.7 percent) and 430 thousand tons of white leg shrimp (up 0.7 percent).
Pangasius exports are forecasted to increase around 30 percent in the last three months of 2018, tuna 15 percent, cutterfish and octopus 10 percent. Seafood export value in the last three months is expected to reach 2.7 billion USD, up 13 percent year on year.
VFM
