(vasep.com.vn) In Q.I/2014, Vietnam's shrimp exports totaled over US$798 million, up 88 percent year on year. Shrimp shipment reported the highest growth among total exports of main items from Vietnam.
In April 2014, shrimp exports continued sharp growth of 69 percent, pushing total shrimp exports through April 2014 to US1.12 billion (up 82 percent). Whiteleg shrimp exports doubled export value of black tiger shrimp.
Among top 10 largest importers of Vietnam shrimp, Japan was the only one that reported the decline in shrimp imports from Vietnam in April 2014 while Vietnam's shrimp exports to other markets saw a drastic growth such as exports to the U.S. up 104.4 percent, EU up 140.7 percent (in which exports to Belgium up over 212 percent), China up 170 percent.
The decline in shrimp exports to Japan was mainly due to Japan's Oxytetracycline (antibiotic used in shrimp farming) inspection on Vietnam shrimp. In the first two months of 2014, shrimp exports to the market marked the monthly growth of 60 percent. However, in March 2014, exports of the item to Japan went up only 1.2 percent year on year. In April 2014, exports downed 15 percent. With the detection of OTC in two shrimp consignments imported from Vietnam, since mid March 2014, Japan has decided to inspect OTC in farmed shrimp products from Vietnam with its MRL of 0.2ppm.
Through April 2014, shrimp exports to the U.S. reported good results thanks to rapid increase in domestic whiteleg shrimp production and shortage of shrimp supply from Thailand (the largest shrimp supplier to the U.S.). Despite "cooling down", global shrimp price still stays on high levels.
Until April 2014, shrimp exports to the U.S. increased by 167 percent year on year to US$355 million. The U.S. is the leading importer of Vietnam shrimp with the proportion of 31.6 percent, higher than that of the same period of 2013 (21.4 percent).