(seafood.vasep.com.vn) China is regarded as an alternative market for Vietnamese shrimp enterprises in the context of decline in shrimp exports to traditional markets.
After the decline in the first 3 quarters of 2015, Vietnam's shrimp exports to China began to recover in the fourth quarter of 2015 and maintained continuous growth until August this year.
As of Aug 15th 2016, Vietnam shrimp exports to China reached US$263.7 million USD, an increase of 35.7% over the same period last year.
Through Aug 2016, shrimp exports in May reached the highest value from the other months. Compared to the same month of 2015, exports in Jun 2016 reported the highest growth of 99.2% from Jun 2015.
China is the largest market of Vietnam black tiger shrimp with the market share of 70%. In 2015, the proportion of Vietnamese black tiger shrimp exported to China doubled compared to that of whiteleg shrimp. China mainly imported frozen/live/fresh shrimp (HS 03) from Vietnam with the proportion of 95% of total shrimp exports by Vietnam to the market. In the first 6 months of this year, the export proportion of Vietnam’s black tiger shrimp was 1.6-fold higher than whiteleg shrimp.
According to the ITC, China’s shrimp imports reached 102,843 MT in 2015; worth by US$754.5 million; up 31.7% in volume and 36% in value. Ecuador was the main supplier of shrimp to China, accounting for 25% of the total shrimp import value into China. Vietnam ranked the 10th among major shrimp suppliers to China, accounting for 1.4%. China tends to increase importing shrimp to meet demand for shrimp processing and domestic consumption.
Ecuador was the main competitor of Vietnam in Chinese market. In 2015, Ecuador exported 50% of its shrimp production to China. In 2016, China is expected to remain as an important market of Ecuadorian exporters.
Vietnam’s shrimp exports to China have opportunities to grow thanks to large population, high demand for importing shrimp to process and reexport and domestic consumption. However, Vietnamese enterprises face some technical barriers to export to the market. Competent authorities of Vietnam are working with Chinese authorities to remove technical barriers and boost exports to the market.
By Kim Thu