(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first 9 months of 2017, Vietnam’s pangasius exports to Saudi Arabia reached US$40.48 million, up 4% over the same period last year. In 2017, Saudi Arabia was put in top 4 "alternative importing markets" of Vietnam with the good growth, which helped to offset the decline in sales to the EU and U.S.
Saudi Arabia stayed as the largest buyer of Vietnam pangasius in the Middle East. According to the latest statistics from ITC, in 2014, Vietnam was the largest and only supplier of pangasius to Saudi Arabia. Last year, the average import price of pangasius into this country ranged from US$1.55 to US$1.75 per kg.
In 2014, the import volume of frozen pangasius into Saudi Arabia was larger and higher than the frozen tilapia. According to ITC, the country imported 800-1,725 MT of pangasius from Vietnam each month, most of which were frozen fish fillets (HS code 030462). In addition, the country also imported frozen chilled fish (HS code 030432) with the average volume of 50 - 200 MT/month.
According to ITC, in 2012, Saudi Arabia bought only about 192 MT of frozen pangasius (HS code 030324) with the value of US$365 thousand. After 5 years, the import volume of this item from Vietnam into Saudi Arabia has increased by 57 times and the import value has gone up 49 times to eye nearly 11 thousand MT and US$17.7 million, respectively.
In 2016, imports of pangasius into the market accounted for the largest share in total whitefish imports, followed by tilapia meat (HS code 030493); frozen tilapia (HS code 030323), fresh/chilled tilapia (HS code 030271). In addition, this market also imported some other whitefish products such as fresh/chilled hake (HS code 030254), frozen cod (HS code 030363) and Alaskan pollock meat (HS code 030494).
In 2016, Vietnam held as the largest whitefish supplier to Saudi Arabia, accounting for 43% of total imports into the country, followed by Myanmar, Egypt, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Thailand. In 2016, the import price of pangasius into Saudi Arabia ranged from US$1.45 to US$1.5 per kg, down over 2015.
In QI/2017, Vietnam’s pangasius shipments to the country posted the good signs and Vietnam enterprises tended to shift their exports America, Asia, including Saudi Arabia while there were difficulties exports to large markets such as the U.S, EU.
In the coming time, Vietnam’s pangasius exports to Saudi Arabia forecasted to increase by 5-10% over the same period last year, with the export price of US$1.5 to US$1.75 per kilogram.