(vasep.com.vn) According to statistics of South Korea Customs, in the first four months of 2012, Vietnam octopus exports (HS 030751 code) to South Korea reported a sharp increase of 29.8 percent over that of the whole 2011.
Vietnam is the largest supplier of frozen, dried, salted or in brine, smoked (HS 030749 code); the third largest supplier of chilled, frozen, fresh, live octopus (after China and Thailand); the second largest supplier of smoked, in brine, salted, dried, frozen octopus (HS 030759 code) (after China) for South Korea.
Until the end of April 2012, South Korea is the fourth biggest importer of Vietnam seafood after EU, the U.S. and Japan as well as the most stable import market of Vietnam cephalopod with export value of US$48.2 million, making up 30.8 percent of total export value and increasing 11.3 percent against that of last year.
With the third largest offshore fishing industry in the world, Korean people’s most favorite dish is seafood, particularly marine finfish, cephalopod. However, soaring fuel cost and strict restrictions in fishing in Korean waters and surrounding Pacific and Indian Ocean led to the decrease in catch landings of South Korea which cannot meet consumer’s demand. Statistics in some recent years indicated that Korean people’s seafood consumption per capita rose to 50-55 kilogram per year, two to three-fold higher than the average level of the world.
In the first months of 2011, food price in South Korea climbed up 10 percent compared to that of the same period of 2010. The export price of seafood, particularly chilled, live, fresh cephalopod to South Korea is higher than that to other markets because Korean people like to eat sashimi processed from fresh, live seafood.