(vasep.com.vn) After a sharp decrease in QI/2013, Vietnam’s seafood exports started to rebound in April. Seafood exports in May 2013 continued the positive momentum of April, reaching US$592 million, up 8.3 percent year on year.
Shrimp and pangasius exports in May saw a drastic increase compared to a year-ago levels, whereas exports of marine products (tuna, squid, cuttlefish, octopus and other marine finfish species) followed the opposite trend.
Shrimp exports in May reached US$244 million, representing a growth of nearly 23 percent on that of a year before. The demand for shrimp has also recovered in major markets. Exports to the U.S. in May jumped of 58 percent, Japan up 18 percent, China up 25 percent, EU up 13 percent and those to other markets were up not less than 10 percent.
Total shrimp exports in the first 5 months of 2013 touched US$864 million, up 6.2 percent from that of the same period of 2012.
Pangasius exports in May 2013 increased by almost 16 percent with the export value of US$174 million, bringing the total pangasius exports during the Jan-May period to US$709 million which was down 1.5 percent against the same period last year.
In contrast, tuna and marine finfish exports, in the early months of this year, witnessed fluctutions due to a declining demand from importers and lower prices, despite plentiful supply of domestic raw tuna.
Shipment of tuna, cephalopod, other marine finfish species in May declined of 22 percent, 22 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively. Vietnam’s tuna exports to Japan experienced the most remarkable decrease (-41 percent), followed by the U.S. (-27 percent).
In the first five months of this year, seafood exports hit US$2.36 billion, equivalent to the figure in the same period of 2012.