Rise in Vietnam octopus sales to Taiwan

Specifically, according to statistics from Vietnam Customs, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Taiwan in the first half of this year continued to climb up, with the value of US$3.3 million, up nearly 40% year on year.

Currently, exports of Vietnam’s fresh/live/frozen squids to Taiwan took up the main share with the value of US$1.6 million, up 101% over the same period last year; followed by fresh/live/frozen/dried octopus with the value of US$994 million, up 407% year on year. Shipments of other cephalopod products of Vietnam to the market recorded the decrease.

Meanwhile, Taiwan’s cephalopod production in the first four months of this year totaled 842 MT, worth by US$4.5 million, down 93% in volume and 80% in value. Taiwan recently increased imports of octopus products and reduced those of squid products. The reason was that the world's production of squid in the first half of this year has decreased, which led to a dip in supplies to this market. In addition, the shortage of raw squid pushed the price up and reduced the demand for processed item in the country.

Currently China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Chile held as the major suppliers of cephalopod to the Taiwan market. In general, Taiwan mainly imports cephalopod products from Asian countries. This year, cephalopod exports of major suppliers to Taiwan have declined sharply in volume and value over the same period last year.

In the coming time, cephalopod imports into Taiwan forecasted to continue the decline. The reason is that the lower capture output keeps the supply decreased, the higher price makes the demand slow down.