(seafood.vasep.com.vn) While Vietnam’s cephalopod sales to other major markets decreased, exports to Russia remained the impressive growth. From the beginning of the year, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Russia posted the continuous growth. In the first seven months of this year, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Russia hit nearly US$3.2 million, an increase of 334% over the same period in 2017. Vietnam mainly shipped fresh/live/frozen cephalopod to this market. Of that, exports of fresh/live/frozen octopus accounted for more than 88% of Vietnam's cephalopod export value to Russia.
Russia's cephalopod imports in the first half of this year totaled more than 5 thousand MT, worth by US$31 million, down 3% in volume and 48% in value, according to statistics released by the International Trade Center.
Russia currently boosted imports of squid products, accounting for more than 98% of the total import value. Frozen/dried/salted squid (HS code 030749) made up 58% of the country's total mollusk imports in the first half of 2018, followed by processed squid products (HS code 160554) with 41% of the total import value. Compared with 2017, imports of frozen/dried/salted squid into Russia (HS code 030749) decreased by 19% while imports of processed squid (HS code 160554) increased by 23%. The 4 main suppliers to Russia included China, Peru, Belarus and Thailand.
In 2016, Vietnam was the third largest supplier of cephalopod to the market. But in 2017, Vietnam lost its market share by big rivals such as China, Peru, Belarus and Thailand. Therefore, with such the good results, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Russia this year expected to recover.