(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Export of cephalopod in Vietnam ended in 2018 with a growth rate of 8.3% compared to 2017 reaching US$ 672.3 million. Except for export to EU market due to the impact of “yellow card” warning, export of cephalopod of Vietnam to other markets had positive growth.
The impact from the yellow card warning of the EU market made Vietnam export of cephalopod to this market drop by nearly 22%. The supply of raw materials for export processing was still low, high prices was still the problems of cephalopod processors in 2018. The growth rate of cephalopod export of Vietnam to the key markets in 2018 compared to previous year was not as high as that of the previous year, Export in 2018, howerver, was still considered a smooth year of operation for Vietnamese exporters of cephalopod with export value increasing to Korea, Japan and ASEAN by 24%, 4% and 15% respectively relative to 2017.
In the 12 months of 2018, the total value of exported cephalopod of Vietnam only decreased in July and August, the remaining months had positive growth. Export of cephalopod in Vietnam tended to grow strongly in the last quarter of the year.
In the total structure of exported cephalopod of Vietnam, squid still dominated with 51.5%, the remaining octopus accounted for 48.5%. Vietnam still mainly exported live/ fresh/frozen cephalopod products (accounting for 67% of the proportion), and processed products were still not much (33%).
In the total mix of exported dried/grilled cephalopod (code HS 03), the strongest growth was 38%; live/fresh/ frozen squid (code HS03) saw the strongest drop of 18% compared to 2017. Octopus export products in 2018 maintained positive growth compared to 2017 in which processed octopus export value (HS16 code) increased the best by 26%.
Republic of Korea was still the largest importer of cephalopod in Vietnam, accounting for 40% of Vietnam's total cephalopod export to markets. This was the market with the highest growth rate in the top 7 largest cephalopod import markets of Vietnam. In 2018, cephalopod exported to this market increased by 23.7% to US$269.8 million. Consistent demand for consumption plus tariff advantages from the free trade agreement between Vietnam and Korea (VKFTA) have helped maintain a stable export growth of Vietnamese cephalopod to this market. .
The EU was the 3rd largest importer of cephalopod in Vietnam. In 2017, Vietnam exported cephalopod to the EU market achieving a growth rate of over 50% and accounting for 12.4% of total production. In 2018, export to this market decreased by 21.7% to over US$83 million due to the impact of IUU yellow card . Export to 3 key import markets in the region (Italy, Spain, France) all fell by 30%, 8.3% and 1.2% respectively compared to 2017.
In 2019, it is expected that the export value of cephalopod of Vietnam will be equivalent to 2018. The export seafood industry, including cephalopod, is making efforts to concentrate on doing well with the C/C documents contributing quickly to remove yellow cards to generate goodwill for importers to order more.