(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In QIII/2016, Vietnam cephalopod exports reached US$118.9 million, up 4.1% year on year. The revenue in QIII/2016 was higher than that in QI and QII/2016.
In Jan-Sep 2016, cephalopod exports reached US$298.3 million, down 4.7% year on year. Two largest markets of Vietnam cephalopod (South Korea and Japan) reported the decline in importing the item from Vietnam. Despite the decline in Jan-Jun 2016, exports to the EU witnessed a slight growth in Jan-Sep 2016 thanks to the 15 percent increase in QIII.
Due to domestic shortage of raw squid, processors must import from many countries in the world. Imports of raw materials into Vietnam still rose in QIII/2016.
In Jan-Sep 2016, exports of squid tend to inch up while that of octopus tend to slow down. In Jan-Jun 2016, squid sales made up 55.7% of the total cephalopod export value. The proportion of squid rose to 57.8% in Jan-Sep 2016. While the proportion of octopus accounted for 42.2% in Jan-Sep 2016 from 44.3% in Jan-Jun 2016.
In terms of cephalopod products for exports, sales of live/fresh/frozen squid (HS 03) remained the growth; sales of other processed squid continued the reduction, smoked/dried squid sales also fell. While sales of processed octopus (HS 16) up 9.2%.
Cephalopod exports to ASEAN in QIII/2016 reached US$12.1 million, down 10.9% year on year. The figure in Jan-Sep 2016 hit US$35.4 million, down 13%. ASEAN was the 4th largest importer of Vietnamese cephalopod, making up 11.9% of the totals.
Cephalopod exports to two main markets in the ASEAN bloc (Thailand and Malaysia) reduced in QIII and the first 9 months of this year. Sales to Thailand in QIII/2016 reached US$9.9 million, down 6.1% and the figure in Jan-Sep 2016 hit US$28.2 million, down 13.4% while sales to Malaysia in QIII/2016 touched US$1.1 million, down 50.9% and the figure in Jan-Sep 2016 was US$4.4 million, down 20.7%.
Although Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Thailand and Malaysia declined, cephalopod imports into Thailand still rose. Demand for importing cephalopod into Thailand was still high. May be import price into these two markets doesn’t attract Vietnamese enterprises, so Vietnam’s exports to these two markets fell.
Thailand ranked the first in importing cephalopod in the ASEAN bloc. It was followed by Philippines and Brunei
Written by Ngoc Thuy
Compiled by Kim Thu