Vietnam finding ways to export more cephalopod to South Korea

However, cephalopod exports to the market through September 2013 were down 14.4 percent on par with the same time of 2012 due to short supply of domestic raw materials and low demand from the Korean market.

In QII/2013, some Vietnam cephalopod exporters encounter difficulties in Korean market because Vietnam’s export price is less competitive than that offered by suppliers from China, Mauritania, Malaysia, Indonesia. However, up to August 2013, Vietnam’s cephalopod exports to Korea ranked after China and Thailand. 

Until August 2013, cephalopod was one of three main seafood products imported by South Korea after finfish and shrimp. Cephalopod in shelled or not, dried, salted or in brine, smoked (HS code 030749) made up 85 percent. In the first half of this year, monthly growth of these items imported into the country sharply increased by 8-25 percent. Imports from China reported the sharpest advance of 12-143 percent and Vietnam reported 9-24 percent rise.

According to Korea Customs Service, Korean seafood production was 3.18 million MT in 2012, down 2.2 percent from 2011. The country is in high demand for seafood imports due to chronic fish shortage. To cope with this situation, the Korean government worked hard to purchase fishing quotas from other countries as well as improving aquaculture activities to produce more fish for consumption.

Under the FTA between South Korea and ASEAN, Vietnamese enterprises are already enjoying preferential tax rates for exporting goods to the market. Tariffs on highly sensitive products like seafood shipped to South Korea will be cut to 20-50 percent on January 1, 2016.