Australia and Canada -2 potential markets in the CPTPP for Vietnam seafood

In the first two months of 2021, Vietnam's seafood exports to other countries continued to be affected by Covid, which slowed down logistics operations, soared sea freight, and increased production and export costs. However, exports to Australia and Canada still maintained impressive growths, up by 38.6% and 11.5% respectively compared to the same period last year with 39.3 million USD and 35.4 million USD.

Thanks to its high growth rate, Australia from the 7th market in 2020 has surpassed to the 5th place among the top 10 single markets of importing Vietnamese seafood in the first 2 months of this year. The share of this market in total exports in 2020 was 2.7%, with the higher results in the first 2 months of this year, the proportion has increased to over 4%. Australia is only behind the US, Japan, China and South Korea in the top 10 markets for Vietnamese seafood. In particular, shrimp alone accounts for 66% of total exports to this market. In 2021, by the end of February, Australia was the fourth largest shrimp market of Vietnam, with a value of over 26 million USD, up by 59%. In the context of Covid, Australia increased imports of frozen steamed white shrimp and dried shrimp from Vietnam.

In 2020, Canada is the 6th largest market for Vietnamese seafood, accounting for 4.1%, with an import value of 263 million USD. In the first two months of 2021, Canada still maintained the 6th position, accounting for 3.5% and growing steadily at 11.5%. In particular, shrimp also accounted for the largest proportion in the seafood products exported to this market, accounting for 61%. However, shrimp exports to Canada increased only slightly by 1.5% to 21.5 million USD. Meanwhile, the export of pangasius and tuna to Canada increased strongly by 13.5% and 36.4%.

In addition to Australia and Canada, the export of Vietnamese seafood to Chile in 2020 and the first two months of this year both increased sharply. Meanwhile, exports to other member countries, especially Asian countries, almost declined due to the impact of the Covid epidemic. This result also clearly shows the positive impact of the CPTPP agreement on exports to countries that first join FTAs ​​with Vietnam such as Canada and Chile. Moreover, in the context of economic difficulties in countries, tariff preferences are fully utilized by importers as a competitive advantage. Therefore, it is forecasted that Vietnam's seafood exports to Australia, Canada and Chile will continue to increase in the coming months and in the whole year 2021.