(vasep.com.vn) South Korea was put into top 5 biggest importers of Vietnam shrimp. Shrimp exports to Korea occupied 8 percent of the country’s total shrimp sales and remained positive growth in many past years.
In QIII/2013, Vietnam shrimp exports to Korea reported a respectable growth of 77 percent year-on-year after the decline of 27.4 percent in QI and 20.1 percent in QII. The decline was caused by Korea’s Ethoxyquin test since Jan 1st 2013 on imported shrimp from Vietnam at low Ethoxyquin residues of 0.01 ppm, equivalent to Japan’s standard.
Vietnam shrimp shipment to Japan and Korea was improved because enterprises strengthened to control Ethoxyquin in raw shrimp and farmers made efforts to minimize Ethoxyquin residue in farmed shrimp in compliance with state agencies’ guidances.
In September 2013, shrimp sales to Korea was up 86.2 percent over 2012, driving total shrimp exports in the past 9 months of this year to US$125 million, up 7.2 percent.
Korea mainly imported frozen raw shrimp, accounting for 77 percent of total shrimp imports into the market. In the first 8 months of 2013, Vietnam outstripped China to become the largest shrimp supplier to Korea, according to International Trade Center (ITC).
In 2012, China held the top position in supplying shrimp to Korea. The next was Vietnam and Thailand. However, shrimp exports of China and Thailand to markets including Korea were badly affected due to shorter supply caused by Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS).
Through August 2013, Korea’s shrimp imports from these two suppliers marked a sharp dip, in which, imports from China downed 20 percent and from Thailand downed 40.9 percent.
According to ITC, in Jan-Aug 2013, Vietnam exported 6,706 MT of shrimp to Korea, China sold 6,211 MT to the market and Thailand posted lower export volume of 2,854 MT. During the time, Vietnam ranked the first in shrimp export volume to Korea; however, Ecuador’s shrimp shipment to the country reported the sharpest growth. Ecuador’s shrimp exports to Korea through Aug 2013 reached 2,731 MT, increasing 63.5 percent on par with the same period of 2012 (1,670 MT).
Vietnam’s shrimp export volume to Korea was much higher than that from Ecuador, meaning that Vietnam still has much room for its exports to Korea in the last months of this year. Besides, the fact that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) rejected DOC’s imposition of countervailing duty on shrimp imported from seven nations including Ecuador also encourages Ecuador shrimp packers to boost shrimp exporting to the U.S.