(vasep.com.vn) During the past 5 years, this is the first time the U.S. has surpassed Japan to be the largest buyer of Vietnam shrimp. Shrimp sales to the U.S. so far have increased partly thanks to tremendous and continuous increase in shrimp price in the U.S. market in the past 9 months of 2013.
According to Vietnam Customs, through September, shrimp shipment to the U.S obtained over US$542.7 million, up 62.6 percent year-on-year. Shrimp sales to the market in 2012 reached US$454.6 million.
In September 2013, shrimp exports to the U.S. hit a record growth of 138.7 percent year-on-year. At that time, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) determined that in the seventh administrative review - POR7 (Feb 1, 2011 - Jan 31, 2012), sales by 33 Vietnam shrimp exporters to the U.S. market have not been made below normal value and they get zero average dumping margin. Thereafter, late September, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rejected DOC’s imposition of 4.52 percent of countervailing duty on shrimp imported from Vietnam that DOC has determined are subsidized.
Two determinations of DOC and ITC not only reduced costs for Vietnam shrimp exporters but also reaffirmed that Vietnam shrimp exporters have been operating under market mechanism, and have never been receiving any government subsidy. These two determinations pace the way for more Vietnam shrimp exports to the U.S.
For the year to September, Vietnam shrimp exports to the U.S. were speeded up by continuous increase in shrimp price caused by shortage of raw shrimp. The price of the species in the U.S. market remained the upward trend from January to September of this year.
In Jan-Sep 2013, the black tiger shrimp price in the U.S. market grew by US$3.2 per kilogram while whiteleg shrimp price marked higher growth of US$4 per kilogram.
Despite dropping to the second position after the U.S., Japan got two- digit growth in shrimp imports from Vietnam. Shrimp sales to Japan through September 2013 reached US$497.1 million, up 12.8 percent from that reported at the compatible period of 2012. The country expects to boost shrimp exports to the market in the last months of the year.
Shrimp exports to EU recovered after one-year deep dive with the export value of US$263.6 million, up 14.8 percent. Exports to leading consumer markets in the block such as Germany, the U.K and France reported sharp increase of 2.7 percent, 34.2 percent and 48.5 percent, respectively.