Shrimp sales to hit the record high of US$3 billion

According to VASEP, Vietnam seafood exports in November 2013 gained US$650 million. Through November 2013, the figure reached US$6.1 billion, equaling to the figure of the whole year 2012. Accordingly, seafood exports in 2013 surely exceed the target of US$6.5 billion and may reach nearly US$7 billion.

The increase in seafood export turnover of this year was largely thanks to shrimp sales. Shipment of pangasius this year reported a modest growth while exports of tuna and cephalopod posted for a continuous decline over the past year.

Through October 2013, shrimp sales achieved a record of nearly US$2.5 billion. The figure breaks the previous record of US$2.4 billion from shrimp sales of 2011.

Shrimp exports through November 2013 were estimated to obtain US$2.7 – 2.8 billion and shrimp exports eyes US$3 billion for the full year. If everything is on schedule, shrimp export value in 2013 will be equal to rice exports (over US$2.9 billion) and much higher than exports of coffee and rubber.

Good result from Vietnam’s shrimp exports in 2013 was attributable to higher shrimp price, decline in global shrimp production caused by EMS, especially in Thailand, China and Malaysia.

Until QIII/2013, Vietnam’s shrimp price in some main markets was US$2-4 per higher than that of the same time of 2012. In the last quarter of 2013, shrimp price is on upward trend. In the first week of November 2013, the price of Vietnam shrimp count 13/15 in Japanese market increased by US$1 per kilogram.

Output and export revenue of whiteleg shrimp contribute to realize the target of US$3 billion in 2013 shrimp exports.

From September 2013 to now, monthly export revenue of vannamei surpassed that of black tiger shrimp. So far this year, vannamei export revenue has exceeded that of black tiger shrimp. Until the end of October, vannamei exports occupied 49 percent of total shrimp export value while the proportion of black tiger shrimp was 44 percent. By the end of this year, export turnover of vannamei is likely to reach nearly the record high of US$1.5 billion.

According to Directorate of Fisheries, through November 2013, shrimp farming area nationwide reached 652,612 hectares, equaling to 99.2 percent of the same time of 2012. The figure included 588,894 hectares of black tiger shrimp farming and 63,719 hectares of vannamei farming. Shrimp output obtained 475,854 MT including 232,853 MT of black tiger shrimp and 243,001 MT of whiteleg shrimp.

Farmers in Vietnam’s coastal provinces of (from Quang Ninh to Phu Yen) reared brackishwater shrimp on the area of 36,879 hectares, making up 5.7 percent of Vietnam’s total shrimp farming area and reaped the output of 76,071 MT, accounting for 14.1 percent of total shrimp production.

Some provinces reporting high shrimp yield were Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Quang Nam and Phu Yen.

In term of seed production, there are 1,722 facilities of black tiger shrimp seed and 583 facilities of whiteleg shrimp seed throughout the country with total production of 68.4 billion shrimp seed including 21.3 billion of black tiger shrimp and 47.2 billion of whiteleg shrimp. Provinces from Quang Ninh to Phu Yen have 227 facilities, occupying 13.18 percent of the country’s total number of facilities with production of over 7 billion seed, making up 4.8 percent of the country’s total seed production. Some provinces reporting high production of shrimp seed were Binh Dinh, Phu Yen, Quang Nam, Quang Binh and Quang Ninh.