(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the last week of April 2022, 28 seafood enterprises, including 9 pangasius exporters set out to attend the 2022 Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona (Fira Barcelona Gran Via, Spain). This is an opportunity for pangasius enterprises to directly meet customers from countries around the world and the EU after more than 3 years of Covid-19 disrupting the seafood trade.
Up to now, Spain is still the leading country in Europe in terms of production, consumption, import, and export of frozen seafood. This is also the gateway and "big fish market" connecting many markets in this area.
In the first quarter of 2022, after more than 3 years of dismal pangasius exports to this market, the export value increased by 67.5%, reaching nearly $4.9 million. Up to now, Spain is the 4th largest export market in the EU for Vietnamese pangasius enterprises.
In the first three months of this year, there were about 20 Vietnamese pangasius enterprises exporting to Spain, the largest of which were C.P Vietnam Joint Stock Company (in Ben Tre), NAVICO, and HAPPY CORP.
Last month, Spain proposed sanctions against Russia after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine such as not importing white fish from Russia, and banning Russian fishing boats from docking in Spanish ports and ports of other member countries of EU.
Spain's move to "make it difficult for whitefish products" from Russia also poses many difficulties to their own businesses because many Russian and Spanish workers working on fishing boats in Russian waters have to unload goods outside of Spain and the EU.
The EU's whitefish fishing industry is also facing other difficulties such as fuel oil prices increasing by more than 7%, plus an increase of more than 100% over the last two years due to the pandemic; lack of cargo containers due to ships having to transport outside the war region.
Spain is the fishing center of Europe and is a large "market" in this area, so its trading in seafood products such as squid, octopus, shrimp, crab... (belonging to HS 0307 and 0306) is very dynamic. This country is also a major exporter and importer of seafood products in this region.
Currently, the whitefish importers of Spain and the EU are facing difficulties due to inflation and rising prices of seafood and aquafeed. Cod products and Russian Alaska pollock are in short supply. Therefore, at the upcoming Global Seafood Expo 2022 in Barcelona, Vietnamese pangasius enterprises look forward to having more orders from these importers. The EU in general and Spain, in particular, are considering solutions to solve the problem of food security, so it is possible to find more customers and sign new contracts.
Compiled by Minh Trang
Image source: Seafood Expo Global
Source: VASEP