(seafood.vasep.com.vn) As of the first half of April 2021, the total value of Vietnamese shrimp exports to the Japanese market reached 154.2 million USD, down 2.1% over the same period last year. Up to now, Japan is still Vietnam's largest black tiger shrimp export market. However, in the context of increasingly complicated Covid developments, the country continues to increase the amount of imports of vannamei shrimp because the price is more suitable.
Vannamei shrimp exports to Japan increased by nearly 6%
It can be said that Japan is one of the attractive markets because of its high average import price. In the first quarter of 2021, whiteleg shrimp again accounted for the largest proportion in the structure of shrimp exports to Japan (nearly 63.1%), up 5.8% over the same period last year. The value of live, fresh and frozen black tiger shrimp (HS code 03) decreased by 30%, the export value of processed black tiger shrimp (HS code 16) down 10.2%.
The export value of other marine shrimp in Q1/2021 decreased by 3.4% over the same period last year. But dried shrimp products (HS code 03) increased by 7.6% and other live, fresh and frozen shrimp (HS code 03) increased by 24.2%.
According to ITC statistics, in 2020, the total volume of shrimp imports into Japan has decreased to 210,000 tons (down 11 thousand tons compared to 2019). It can be said that Japan is a market with the highest price of imported shrimp in the world. Meanwhile, in the past year, the country has significantly reduced the value of imports, partly because of COVID-19. This decline has a strong impact on two major shrimp suppliers to this market, Vietnam and Thailand.
The reasons are attributed to Japan's shrinking population, greater market competition, and greater consumption of other animal proteins by younger generations.