(vasep.com.vn) In April 2012, exports of two key items (shrimp and pangasius) dropped. Since the early 2012, because of difficulties in seafood production and business, seafood exports in the quarter II and III will grow at less than 10 percent, many experts forecasted.
In the first four months of 2012, while many main agricultural products witnessed a continuous reduction in the export turnover, seafood exports remained a positive revenue of nearly US$1.8 billion, up 11 percent over the same period of 2011.
In April alone, the figure was US$470.1 million, up 0.9 percent. However, the above seafood export growth posted the weakest performance in the past three years due to a lot of troubles. The growth is positive in aspect of value but in aspect of profit, it is reducing.
In the wake of heaped up bottlenecks, seafood enterprises must face lack of capital and raw material, soaring input costs, the reduction in the number of importing markets. As a result, exports of two main items (shrimp and pangasius) has signs of reducing since April, in which shrimp exports fell by 6.5 percent to US$163.2 million, black tiger shrimp exports fell by 22 percent due to shrimp mortality caused by plague and low demand for high-grade products. Pangasius exports reached only US$143.6 million, down 0.9 percent over 2011. Fish shipment will continue to fall if enterprises and farmers are not supported by loans from banks.
Now, seafood exports are unfavorable due to economic recession and low demand of importers. EU remains a key importer of Vietnam seafood with the export proportion of 19.6 percent, lower than that of the same period of 2011 (nearly 25 percent).
Exports to EU will continue to decline due to persistent financial crisis. In Jan – Apr 2012, seafood exports to the block decreased almost 12 percent in which shrimp exports fell by 30 percent and pangasius fell by 14 percent. The growth in seafood exports to the U.S. was more positive but only equal to one third over that of the same period of 2011.
The sharp decline in exports to the key markets drove seafood enterprises to Asia, especially Japan. In April 2012, seafood exports to Japan was up 32 percent, higher than that of the same period of 2011(3 percent) and the export proportion also rose from 14 percent in Jan – Apr 2011 to nearly 18 percent in Jan – Apr 2012.
However, Japan is increasingly imposing technical barriers to Vietnam seafood. Since May 18th 2012, Japan has tested Ethoxyquin residue on 30 percent of Vietnam shrimp consignments imported to the market with maximum residue limits of 0.01 ppm. While in Japan, Ethoxyquin is allowed to use in shrimp feed with maximum residue limits of 150 ppm.
In Jan – Apr 2012, top 10 seafood exporters made up 21.5 percent of total seafood exports of the whole country, higher than that of Jan – Apr 2011 (19.3 percent). This is an opportunity for seafood export sector to restructure, remain a stable and sustainable development. However, in hard economic situation, competent agencies need to bring out measures to help enterprises recover and develop in the future.
From now to the end of this year, seafood exports is expected to keep a two digit growth. By enterprises’ efforts in reducing input cost to lower the products’ price, increasing competitive ability, remaining consumers, ensuring labours’ life and employment, seafood exports will recover and develop in the next year, many experts predicted.