Whiteleg shrimp is more favoured in Germany

German market is "sensitive" to the price. Thus, demand for shrimp imports into the market plunged mainly due to EU’s economic recession and EUR’s sharp devaluation against USD.

This is also a part of reason why the proportion of whiteleg shrimp out of Vietnam’s total shrimp exports to Germany dominated black tiger shrimp.

In 2011, Vietnam’s whiteleg shrimp exports to Germany hit US$40.4 million, representing the proportion of 35.7% while black tiger shrimp sales were US$63.7 million, taking 56.3%. In 2012, the proportion of whiteleg shrimp increased to 46.6% while that of black tiger shrimp reduced to 45.5%. In 2013, whiteleg shrimp accounted for 53.4% while black tiger shrimp occupied 40%.

In 2014, whiteleg shrimp sales to Germany made up 58% while black tiger shrimp sales took 34.7%. In Jan-Sep 2015, the proportion of whiteleg shrimp was 73.5% while that of black tiger shrimp was 19.9%. This trend showed that whiteleg shrimp is increasingly favoured in Germany.

Between 2011-2014, Germany held the top position in EU bloc in terms of importing shrimp from Vietnam. In 2014, Vietnam shrimp exports to the market made up 20.5% of Vietnam’s total shrimp exports to EU.

The statistics from the International Trade Center (ITC) stated that in 2014, Vietnam was the largest shrimp supplier to German market, accounting for 18.4% of total shrimp imports into Germany. Frozen raw shrimp is the main product imported into Germany, accounting for 56.4% of total shrimp imports into Germany in the first 6 months of this year. In which Vietnam took the lead in supplying the product to Germany. In Jan-Jun 2015, import value of raw frozen shrimp from Vietnam to Germany reached US$27.6 million, representing 19.6% of total imports of the product into Germany; 1.7 times higher than import value from India, 10 times higher than from Indonesia and 12.4 times higher from Thailand.

In Jan-Jun 2015, total shrimp imports into Germany reached US$252.8 million, down 18.2% year on year. In the period, shrimp imports from Vietnam into the market still increased by 12.5% while imports from India downed 8.1%, imports from Thailand downed 64.7% and from Indonesia downed 19.8%.

In 2014, the average seafood consumption per capita in Germany was 14 kg/year, up 0.2% compared to 2013. It is expected that the consumption will be stable in 2015. In 2015, seafood companies in Germany plan to boost promotions to strengthen seafood consumption and ensure that seafood is put into daily spending list of German consumers.

German economy remains a positive outlook with expected growth of 1.8% this year. The economic growth in 2016 is forecast to reach 2.1% and 2.3% in 2017. Once the economy recovered, EUR increased, demand for seafood imports including shrimp into Germany will inch up. This is a good sign for Vietnam shrimp exporters to the market in the coming time.