(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first eight months of 2018, Vietnam’s total value of pangasius exports to Egypt reached US$24.2 million, up 34% over the same period last year. It remained as one of the three most important pangasius importing markets of Vietnamese pangasius in the Middle East.
In the first two months of this year, pangasius exports to this market decreased by 38%-71% over the same period last year. But in the next 3 months, the export value to this market increased very strongly by 100.6%-207.9% over the same period in 2017.
In the structure of seafood exports in the first 8 months of 2018, pangasius exports to Egypt took the highest value, accounting for 81%, followed by shrimp and other aquatic products. Stagnation of seafood imports, including pangasius into big import market such as Saudis made Vietnamese companies push into the UAE market and Egypt. As a result, during the past 8 months, pangasius exports to this market were relatively good.
Late in August 2018, during a state visit to Egypt, President Tran Dai Quang met with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly at the prime minister's seat in Cairo. During the meeting, the Vietnamese side also suggested Egypt to soon complete its internal procedures for the double taxation avoidance agreement to take effect and create favorable conditions for Vietnam to import agricultural products (pepper, coffee, tea ...), seafood (pangasius, basa fish ...) into supermarket chains of Egypt.
The two sides also agreed to launch the Halal Food Standards Program for Vietnamese goods exported to the Islamic market in general and the Egyptian market in particular. Hopefully, in the coming time, exports of pangasius in particular and seafood products in general to this market will have more advantages and a better growth. This market was still considered as one of the three potential markets of Vietnam pangasius in this Middle East region.