(pangasius-vietnam.com) Vietnam pangasius exports to South Korea have been on uptrend over the current years, because demand for this fish in the market kept rising. In the first half of 2013, Vietnamese pangasius still saw strong increase in shipment to South Korea while Korean imports of all fishery products tended to stumble.
According to statistics from Vietnam Customs, pangasius exports to South Korea reached nearly US$3 million between January and June 2013, up 32 percent against the same half of 2012. This period, Korean imported about 495,350 MT of seafood products (HS code 03) valued at US$1.509 billion, compared to 508,536 MT and US$1.598 billion in the first six months of 2012, according to International Trade Center (ITC). In the second quarter of 2013, there were 251,193 MT of fish products introduced into the market, up 2.88 percent on that of the first quarter. Vietnam was Korea’s third supplier after China and Russia, with 23,160 MT of seafood products, up 10.9 percent from Q.I/2013.
With a rise in pangasius exports, Vietnam has passed China to be the leading partner of South Korea in frozen fish fillets segment since 2010. The ITC stated that Korea purchased 46,170 MT of frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. The figure soared to 68,051 MT in 2012. China ranked second with 46,068 MT in 2010, but the volume fell to 21,391 MT in 2012.
Vietnam, China, Russia and the U.S. were the four leading suppliers of frozen fish fillets to South Korea. In 2012, Vietnam ranked first with 116,865 million, madding up the 30.6 percent of Korean total imports of this kind of product. The U.S. with 11.5 percent of share followed it. Both Russia and China made up 10.5 percent of the total. Though being the second provider in terms of volume, China just ranked fourth in terms of value.
Koreans consume different fish products and in different form: live, fresh, salted or frozen fish in order of preference. They assume that live and fresh fish taste better than frozen ones after cooking. Accordingly, fresh or chilled fish tend to be more expensive than the frozen one.
Consumption of seafood and pangasius products is expected to be stable in the coming time because Korean consumers seen these products as a high nutrition source.