(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first 7 months of 2019, total white fish imports of Russia still rose by 12.43% over the same period in 2018. In particular, imports of cod and pollock still grew well; Imports of frozen pangasius fillets (HS 0304) increased slightly by nearly 3%, while imports of frozen pangasius (HS code 0303) declined sharply by more than 29%.
Russia was one of the largest suppliers of whitefish in the world. In 2018, the country exported over 959.7 thousand MT of whitefish with a total value of about $ 1.55 billion to China, the Netherlands, South Korea, Norway, the UK and Belarus ... Frozen pollock Alaska products (HS 030367) accounted for the largest proportion in the export structure of Russian whitefish products, accounting for nearly 48% of total export value of white fish. Followed by cod products (HS 030363), Alaska pollock fillets (HS 030475), cod fish fillets (HS 030471) ... It can be said that in 2019, Russia are headed exports whitefish mainly towards the Asian markets (China was the largest trading partner), and some EU markets (the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Denmark ...).
Besides huge export activities, Russia was also a large importer of white fish. In particular, Vietnam was one of the major suppliers for this market. However, in the last 2 years, pangasius imports of Russia from Vietnam have decreased and not many pangasius enterprises have exported stably in this market.
In the past 5 years, Russia has always been in the top 10 largest importers of Vietnamese enterprises, especially pangasius/basa products (red meat). But in the last 2 years, pangasius import of Russia has always decreased and remained at a low level, the average import prices were not stable and not really attractive.
In the first 10 months of 2019, the total value of pangasius exports to Russia decreased by 30.9% over the same period in 2018. This was a further decline compared to the previous reduction in 2018. By the end of October 2019, the total value of pangasius exports to this market was only US $ 12.5 million, equivalent to the value of pangasius exports to Italian market. It is forecasted that pangasius exports to Russia will continue to decrease in the fourth quarter of 2019.