(seafood.vasep.com.vn) South Korea is still the largest importer of Vietnamese cephalopod, accounting for 39.9% of Vietnam's total export of cephalopod to markets. In the fourth quarter of 2019, cephalopod exports to South Korea reached US$ 61.4 million, down nearly 32% compared to the fourth quarter of 2018.
In 2019, cephalopod exports to South Korea reached more than US$ 230 million, down 14.8% compared to 2018. After continuous growth in the first 4 months of 2019, exports of this item to South Korea slashed from May to the end of 2019.
Decreasing export prices and unstable consumption demand were one of the factors affecting Vietnamese cephalopod exports to South Korea in 2019. The tariff advantage from the Vietnam-Korea Free Trade Agreement (VKFTA) partly helped the export of Vietnamese cephalopod to this market.
In the structure of Vietnamese cephalopod product exports to Korea, octopus still dominated with 75.6%, squid made up for 24.4%. In 2019, only Vietnam's processed squid exports to South Korea lifted by 35.7%, exports of the remaining products all decreased, in which Vietnam's processed octopus exports to South Korea dropped the most by 22.9%. The two groups of dried/smoked squid and live/fresh/ frozen squid went down by 17.3% and 18.7%, respectively, compared to 2018.
South Korea mainly imports cephalopod product from Vietnam such as dried squid, skin, frozen cleaning processing squid, frozen sushi squid, frozen whole octopus, chilled octopus ...
Currently, Vietnam are enjoying a 0% export tax to Soth Korea for live, fresh, frozen octopus products (HS030751 and HS030759). Dried/salt/live/fresh/frozen octupus was also the product that accounts for the highest proportion of total squid and octopus products exports to Korea.
In 2019, South Korea's cephalopod imports reached US$ 345.8 million, down 8.7% compared to 2018. China was the largest supplier of cephalopod to Korea, accounting for 60%. Vietnam ranked third, accounting for 11% of the total import value of South Korea cephalopod. Among the top 5 main cephalopod supplies for South Korea in 2019, only imports from the Philippines increased, imports from other suppliers all decreased, in which imports of cephalopod from Thailand dropped the most by 35%.