Vietnam seafood industry: 10 significant events in 2011

1 - The government approved aquaculture development toward 2020

By 2015, the project will bring the aquaculture area of 1.1 million hectares, aquaculture production of 3.6 million MT with the export turnover up to US$3.5 – US$4 billion and create jobs for 3 million workers.

Toward 2020, aquaculture area will reach 1.2 million hectares while farmed fish production will gain 4.5 million MT with the export turnover of US$5 – US$5.5 billion and 3.5 million jobs will be created. 

2 – Vietnam seafood exports exceed US$6 billion

In 2011, the total earnings from seafood export reached US$6.118 billion. This showed an increase of 21 percent over 2010. Two key export items of Vietnam seafood (shrimp and pangasius) made up the proportion of 30 – 40 percent in the seafood export structure. More than 900 seafood exporters shipped their seafood products to 153 markets worldwide.

3 – Vietnam won the case to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against US anti-dumping duty calculating measure on its frozen shrimp shipments

World Trade Organization (WTO) judges ruled that the U.S. violated global trade rules in using its “zeroing” method to impose anti-dumping duty on frozen shrimp from Vietnam. The panel of WTO said the U.S. “has acted inconsistently with provisions of the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The panel supported two of Vietnam’s three major complaints relating to the shrimp anti-dumping duty. In its conclusion, WTO ruled that the U.S.’s “zeroing” method to impose anti-dumping duty on Vietnam shrimp violated WTO’s regulations.

4 - Vietnam seafood shipments to the U.S., Japan and EU reached over US$1 billion each market despite global economic recession

The U.S., Japan and EU are three major importers of Vietnam seafood, making up nearly 60 percent of Vietnam seafood export proportion in 2011. These three economies faced heavy downturn such as worse sovereign debt crisis in EU, surging unemployment rate in the U.S., slow recovery of Japanese economy after the earthquake and tsunami. Yet, Vietnam seafood exports to these three markets showed signs of growth in which exports to EU reached US$1.3 billion, rising 10 percent, the U.S. gained US$1.1 billion, up 21 percent, Japan achieved more than US$1 billion , increasing 11.9 percent over those of 2010.

5 - VASEP to set up the club of domestic seafood suppliers

The club of domestic seafood suppliers under the control of VASEP Marine Product Committee (VMPC) was officially established with the participation of over 30 suppliers of various seafood for domestic market. The main functions of the club are gathering and creating a close link among its members to improve the quality and the productivity of their seafood products supplied for local distributors. The club’s members operate voluntarily based on mutual benefits. The club members also build and maintain a tight cooperative relationship with distributors in Vietnam market. Besides, the club protects its members’ legitimate benefits.

6 – Heavy loss of shrimp due to plague

Dead shrimp farming areas reached 85,000 hectares nationwide, equal to 300 percent on that of 2010. The area of black tiger shrimp farming was hit the worst with the loss of 81,000 hectares, whiteleg shrimp farming with the loss of over 3,600 hectares. Shrimp production under both semi-industrial and industrial farming method fell deeply because shrimp died in the early time of the crop.

7 - Whiteleg shrimp was removed from the list of harmful exotic species

On 1st July 2011, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) decided to add whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) and Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas) into the list of harmful exotic species. After that, on 14th September 2011, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) sent documents to MONRE and requested the Ministry to remove two species from the list. In December 2011, after three months of serious discussion, MONRE informed that it removed whiteleg shrimp from the list.

8 –Vietnam pangasius rank the higher level in the top 10 list of US favorite species

National Fisheries Institute (NFI) released top 10 list of the U.S.’s favorite fish species in 2010 in which Vietnam pangasius ranked the ninth compared to the eighth of 2009. Among the U.S.’s top 10 favourite fish species, Vietnam pangasius is one of four species (including tilapia, tuna, cod) which saw a high consumption over the previous year. October is the fifth consecutive month of 2011 when the U.S.’s pangasius import from Vietnam reached the monthly record high with the total value of 19 million pounds for the first time.

9- The scarcity of raw material and fierce competition of Chinese dealers

While Vietnam seafood enterprises coped with the serious shortage of raw material, Chinese dealers rushed the Central and South Central Coast to collect and purchase raw marine fish (shrimp, octopus, marine finfish, squid) from fishermen. This contributed to cause more hardship for seafood processing and exporting situation of Vietnam in 2011.

10– VASEP launched financial assistance programe to fishermen in the East Sea

At Vietnam Fisheries International Exhibition 2011 (Vietfish 2011), Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) launched a program calling on its members to provide financial assistance to Vietnam fishermen operating in the East Sea, who are facing tough conditions in Vietnam waters to help them continue to go offshore fishing. It was informed that VASEP has mobilized more than 3 billion VND to buy 110 satellite communication machines integrated GPS (VX 1700) to present offshore fishing fishermen of eight central coastal provinces (Binh Dinh, Binh Thuan, Da Nang, Khanh Hoa, Ninh Thuan, Phu Yen, Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces).