Vietnam has seen a slump in sales and exporting prices while high costs in production, especially in feed and breeding stocks and other basic expenses have become a burden on domestic production and processing.
Seafood exports in April continued to decline by 28% as compared to the same period of 2022, down to USD 810 million. Over USD 2.6 billion was achieved by the end of April, 31% lower than the same period last year.
According to VASEP, the US market is sinking into a situation of high prices and poor sales. The American is thinking of cutting expenditures, even with cheap products, they reduce purchasing unnecessary and unlabelled products and focus on key categories. Some buy less and eat less. Consumers manage to buy just what they really need.
And as such, Vietnam’s seafood exports to the US reduced sharply by 51% in April, making the US rank the third position among importing countries, after Japan and China. The accumulated value of seafood exports to the US in the first four months of 2023 reached USD 418 million, down over 57% from the same period last year.
Despite better signs of exports to China, a positive growth has not been recorded as compared to the same period last year. This is attributed to the fact that pangasius exports to this country have not recovered due to a decline in the average exporting price. By the end of April, Vietnam’s seafood exports to China were estimated to reach USD 435 million, down 37%.
Due to a slump in sales to the two biggest markets, pangasius exports were badly affected, resulting in a worth of approximately USD 600 million in the first four months, down 46% from the same period last year.
Shrimp exports were seriously affected by the slump in major destinations, especially the US. As of late April, shrimp exports reached over USD 891 million, down 44%.
Among exported seafood products, an increase in sales of cuttlefish and some other marine fishes (except for tuna) was recorded in April. Accordingly, tuna exports reduced by 36% and exports of other aquatic species suffered a double-digit decrease.
Vietnam saw a slump in sales of seafood to Korea and Japan as compared to the same period last year; however, a lower slump than in the US and China. A reduction in shrimp exports was compensated by revenue from processing aquatic products for export purposes upon orders by seafood processing and trading companies.
VFM
