(vasep.com.vn) Vietnam’s pangasius sector got year-on-year drop in export to Russia in the third quarter and the first nine months of 2012. The industry reported US$12.4 million of pangasius sales to Russia in the second quarter of 2012, while it reached US$18.01 million in the same quarter of 2011.
Referring to statistics from Vietnam Customs, Russian imported US$32.78 million of pangasius from Vietnam between January and September 2012, showing a decline of 24.8 percent over the compatible time of last year and represented a half of Vietnam’s total seafood sales to this market. From July to September 2012, Russia consumed US$10.8 million of pangasius products.
There are currently a large number of Russia buyers asking to purchase fish from Vietnam, but not many Vietnamese exporters could provide fish as they have got no quotas to export products to this destination.
Russia’s fish production steadily increased over the recent years but the country still purchased more seafood products from outside. Since 2004, Russia has got year-on-year growth in seafood imports. Among imported items, frozen fish (HS code 0303) were the most consumed products. Fresh fish products occupied the second largest part and got the highest growth in import value. Frozen fish fillets (HS code 0304) ranked the third place.
According to statistics from International Trade Center, in 2011, Russia bought US$333.19 million of frozen fish fillets while the market totaled US$822.2 million of frozen fish in all products and varieties. China was its biggest supplier with export revenue of US$95.9 million. Norway took the second position with US$67.2 million. And Vietnam earned US$62.9 million of fish export to become the third important partner.
In terms of value, fresh and frozen fish products made up 60 percent in Russia’s seafood import structure. Fresh fish took a strongly increasing part as the result of Russian consumers’ higher demand for these products in recent years. Fresh fish imports accounted for 11 percent in 2004, and then rose to 32 percent in 2011. In contrast, frozen fish imports fell from 67 percent in 2004 to 35 percent in 2011. Proportion of frozen fish fillet in overall seafood imports went up from 11 percent in 2004 to 14 percent in 2011, mostly due to rise in consumption of frozen pangasius fillets from Vietnam.
Russia Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) reported that in the first half of 2012, fish of all products and varieties in Russian retail sales got 9 percent rise in price. Demand for seafood consumption is predicted to keep sharply increasing in the segments of both high and low-value fish products. Per capita seafood consumption will also reach higher levels in the year.