With the average seafood import demand of 4.1-4.5 billion USD/year, Vietnam seafood has great room to increase exports to the UK market thanks to the push from the UKVFTA Free Trade Agreement.
The growth rate of seafood export of 13% to the UK market in 2020 will surely change in a positive direction in 2021, when UKVFTA has officially come into effect.
From the beginning of 2020, when the UK officially left the EU, seafood exports to this market had many positive signals, while exports to the EU27 markets declined due to the impact of Covid-19.
In 2020, Vietnam's seafood exports to the UK has reached about $355 million, of which shrimp, pangasius, crabs and marine fish got high growths in exports. Processed pangasius products grew well with exports value 15 times higher than that of 2019.
The factor that businesses expect is that the UK import tax policy will not change compared to the EU tariff. In addition, UK seafood import demand is forecasted to remain stable and possibly increase for farmed seafood products. This is a good opportunity for Vietnam's seafood industry.
With UKVFTA, Vietnam's seafood exports to the UK continue to enjoy preferences based on the continuation of the Vietnam - EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). For the tariff lines that the EU has committed to Vietnam in the quota system with import duties in the quota of 0%, the UK gives Vietnam the quota for these items based on the actual bilateral trade statistic between Vietnam and the UK in the period 2014 - 2016.