Vietnam cephalopod shifted to Netherlands

Through April 2014, Vietnam cephalopod exports to the Netherlands reported the highest growth among the EU block. Exports of the item in January, February and April of 2014 witnessed three digit growth of 129 – 507 percent year on year, except for the decline of 62.2 percent in March.

According to the International Trade Center (ITC), among top largest suppliers of cephalopod to the Netherlands, Vietnam ranked the 5^th behind China, Spain, the U.K and India. In the structure of Vietnam’s mollusk exports to the Netherlands, frozen/dried/salted or in brine squid (HS code 030749) is the main item, accounting for 70 percent of Vietnam’s total mollusk export value to the market. However, Vietnam exporters are facing fierce competition from Chinese rivals in the market.

China’s frozen cephalopod epxorters are subjecting duty rate of 8 percent, higher than that paid by Asian suppliers such as India, Thailand, Vietnam with the rate of 3.3 percent. While large suppliers in the EU block such as Spain, Portugal enjoy the rate of 0 percent. Despite the disadvantage, Chinese cephalopod exporters are still dominating the Dutch market.

In March 2014, cephalopod imports from China into the Netherlands accounted for 7.7 percent of the market’s total import value. In the same month of 2014, the proportion increased to nearly 30 percent, doubling the import value from Spain and the U.K into the Netherlands and reporting 3-fold growth against import value from India, Vietnam and Thailand.

Chinese suppliers of cephalopod (HS code 030749) are making up 40 percent of the Netherlands’ total import value thanks to lower prices and diversified products such as fresh/frozen/salted or dried cephalopod products.