(seafood.vasep.com.vn) With favorable natural conditions, the marine product industry of Vietnam is growing rapidly and marine product export activities are being promoted. Marine product exports always account for more than 30% of total export value.
With a long coastline of over 3,260 km and an exclusive economic zone of over 1 million km2, marine resources of the country are considered to be rich and diverse, with more than 2,000 species of marine life. The output from inshore and offshore fishing increased by an average of 5% per year. Total annual capture production has increased from 2 to 3 million MT per year.
In addition, the sector of fishing, processing and exporting marine products of Vietnam is highly developed, contributing significantly to the growth of marine product export turnover, opening a promising direction for offshore fishing industry. The value of marine product export turnover has grown rapidly in the past two decades, up from US$355 million to US$2.7 billion, an increase of 652%.
Vietnam's marine products for exports are increasingly diversified. Products such as tuna, cephalopod, bivalve mollusks, crab and surimi are currently getting much higher export turnover than 1998-1999. In particular, tuna and cephalopod account for high proportion of total marine product exports of the country.
In the past 20 years, tuna has been one of the three major export products of Vietnam. The export value of tuna products increased from US$14 million to US$593 million, an increase of 4,109%. The share of tuna exports in Vietnam’s total marine product exports has increased from 4% to 22%. The major export species of Vietnam include yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna, longfin tuna, southern bluefin tuna and striped tuna. In terms of product structure, if in the period of 1998 - 2007, Vietnam mainly exported raw tuna; in the past 10 years, enterprises have paid much attention to increase the value of products and exports of processed tuna products such as tuna loins/fillets, canned tuna in oil and tuna pouch.
Along with tuna, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports also increased continuously through the years. The export value has risen from US$92 million to US$621 million in the last 20 years, up 572%. And for the past 20 years, cephalopod exports always occupied a large proportion in total marine product exports.
By 2017, Vietnam's marine products have been exported to more than 184 markets in the world. Of that, Japan, the EU, the U.S, ASEAN, South Korea and China held as the six largest marine product importers of Vietnam, accounting for over 81% of total marine product export value.
However, Vietnamese marine products have to strongly compete with the same items from rivals as well as face difficulties such as technical barriers to trade in main markets.
With so many difficulties, but over 20 years with many efforts, Vietnam's marine product industry is gradually growing. The export value is increasing and it is forecasted that Vietnam’s marine product exports in the coming time will increase slightly.