(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first two months of 2022, Vietnam seafood exports to China & Hong Kong nearly doubled over the same period last year, reaching 170 million USD. In which, pangasius was the most breakthrough, increased by 240%, crabs increased by 198%, cephalopod increased by 146%.
Vietnam exports of pangasius, cephalopod and crab to China skyrocketed by 240%
After decreasing by 17% in 2021, mainly due to the Zero Covid policy in the China market, since the beginning of 2022 until now, exports to the market have recovered strongly. In January 2022, exports to China & Hong Kong increased by 56%, February exports outperformed with a growth of 138% compared to the same period last year.
In which, in the first two months of the year, Vietnam seafood exports to China more than doubled over the same period, reaching 145 million USD, accounting for 85%. Exports to Hong Kong increased by 46% to 25 million USD, accounting for 15%.
Importers in China and Hong Kong both boosted their orders of Vietnamese pangasius, crab and cephalopod products in the past two months. As for tuna, consumption was only strong in Hong Kong, with a growth of 56%, while China had almost no orders for Vietnamese tuna in the first 2 months of the year.
Although the growth was more modest than other products, shrimp still accounted for a high proportion of 23.4% of the total seafood export to this market, with nearly 40 million USD, up 13%. In which, China consumed nearly 28 million USD, while shrimp exports to Hong Kong reached 12 million USD.
Seafood exports to China & HK in 2021 hit the lowest level in 5 years
Vietnam seafood exports to China & Hong Kong in 2021 decreased by nearly 17% to more than 1.1 billion USD, the lowest level in the past 5 years. The main reason is China's Zero Covid policy, which has caused trade and import clearance activities to be stalled and jammed for most of the past year.
The 3 main products exported to China last year include shrimp (accounting for 36%), pangasius (39%) and other marine fish (14%); these products were all significantly reduced in export value to this market. In which, pangasius exports reached nearly 450 million USD. Shrimp exports to China & Hong Kong reached 412 million USD, dropped by 22%. In which, exports to China decreased by 22%, especially to Hong Kong fell 18%. China has reduced imports of giant tiger prawn from Vietnam by 14%, while imports of whiteleg shrimp still increased by nearly 6%.
Anchovy accounted for a significant proportion of seafood exports to China (6.4%, reaching 63 million USD), but in the past year, there has been a sharp decrease of 37%. In the first two months of this year, anchovy exports continued to decrease by 16%.
However, in 2021, China has sharply increased the import of some fish species. For example, mackerel imports increased by nearly 10 times, yellow stripe scad sales increased by 42%, fish sauce increased by 40%, herring increased by 108%...
Crab exports to China in 2021 fell 23% while exports to Hong Kong increased sharply by 116%.
Complied by Phuong Linh