Asia – potential destination for Vietnam shrimp

Shrimp exports to the U.S. were subjected to DOC’s countervailing lawsuit, exports to EU were under strain owing to the persistent economic distress, and South Korea imposed Ethoxyquin inspection with MRL of 0.01ppm. Shrimp shipment to Japan stopped its deep dive but is showing no sign to soar due to Ethoxyquin barriers.

In times of current difficulties, many Vietnam shrimp exporters are making efforts to seek and boost exporting to other markets including Asian markets.

China: The third largest importer of Vietnam shrimp

China is an attractive market for many shrimp suppliers all over the world due to its high consumption demand as well as a tremendous decline in domestic shrimp output caused by disease outbreaks. Therefore, thanks to its favorable geography for cross-border trade, Vietnam is one of the suppliers, which reported a high growth in shrimp exports to China since the early months of 2013.

In QI/2013, China outstripped EU to hold the third place as Vietnam’s shrimp importer behind Japan and the U.S. At the time, Vietnam shrimp exports to China saw a sharp growth of 7.3 – 97 percent from that recorded in QI/2012. In the first 5 months of 2013, Vietnam shrimp exports to China (including Hong Kong) increased by 17.9 percent earning US$108.5 million and the market is still occupying the third position.

Not only being a leading seafood exporter, China is turning into a potential seafood consumer. Some reports showed that in the next decade, seafood imports into China could reach US$20 billion.

Vietnam’s shrimp exports to ASEAN up 15.5 percent

According to market report from Globefish, demand for shrimp imports from ASEAN markets is surging in order to meet domestic consumption and raw material for processing. Shrimp imports into Singapore and Taiwan in 2012 increased by 2.1 and 1.1 percent, respectively.

In the first 5 months of 2013, Vietnam’s shrimp exports to ASEAN witnessed a bright growth of 15.5 percent from that of the same period of 2012, in which exports to Singapore were up of 3.7 percent, to Philippines up 88.5 percent and to Malaysia up 16.8 percent.

Out of ASEAN, Singapore took the lead in buying shrimp from Vietnam with an import value of over US$10.7 million. In May 2013, shrimp exports to the market went up of 76 percent. According to statistics from International Trade Center (ITC), Vietnam was the largest supplier of frozen shrimp for Singapore with a market share of 31.7 percent.

Disease is expected to sharply slashed Malaysia’s shrimp output in 2013. The country’s shrimp output in QI/2013 was estimated to decrease over 30 percent to 90,000 MT from 60,000 MT of the same time of 2012. This resulted in serious shortage of raw shrimp in this locality. Therefore, Malaysia will continue to boost importing shrimp and the market will be a promising destination for Vietnam shrimp in the near future.