(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In 2018, tuna prices were generally softer than in 2017, but this did not have any impact on demand in the EU market. The amount of inventories in the EU market in the past year was high and the demand for ordinary canned tuna products was at saturation levels, thus affecting the import trend in this market. In the first 11 months of 2018, the EU's tuna imports decreased by 5% to 923 thousand tonnes compared to the same period in 2017. However, in terms of export value, EU's tuna imports still climbed by 11% compared to 2017, reaching more than US$5 billion.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has approved the Decision 596/QĐ-TTg on the establishment of the National Steering Committee on combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Vietnam shrimp exports to the UK have always achieved positive growth rates since 2012 as the UK has promoted importing warmwater shrimp as an affordable product that can replace coldwater shrimp. The price of coldwater shrimp is increasing due to the fact that the main supplying countries continuously cut their quotas which resulting in a drop in production. Sales of warmwater shrimp in British supermarkets and retail channels continued to increase while sales of coldwater shrimp decreased.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) On October 1, 2009, the Vietnam - Japan Economic Partnership Agreement took effect. According to commitments within 10 years of the entry into force of the Agreement, Japan will exempt duty on 94% of Vietnam's goods exported to this market, especially tax exemption for 86% of Vietnamese agricultural products (including tuna products). However, since the VJEPA agreement come into effect, Vietnam's tuna exports to Japan have not changed much.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to ITC statistics, in the first quarter of 2019, Japanese cephalopod imports reached nearly 11.7 thousand tons worth US$77.6 million, up 11% in volume and 10% in value compared to the same period in 2018.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Japan maintained the second largest shrimp importer from Vietnam in the first 3 months of 2019, accounting for 19.7% of the total export value of Vietnam shrimp. In the first three months of this year, Japan was the only market among the major importers for Vietnamese shrimp that recorded positive growth. Vietnamese shrimp exports to Japan in recent years increased thanks to good demand and advantages from trade agreements between Vietnam and Japan.

(seafood. vasep.com.vn) There was a fastidious importer in Asia that has started to "open up" to receive Vietnamese pangasius. 2018 marked the growth of Pangasius exports to Japan with an increase of 37.6% in total pangasius export value compared to 2017. Continued the upward trend, in the first 3 months of 2019, pangasius exports to Japan reached US$8.58 million, up 60.37% over the same period in 2018. This value was higher than the results to some potential markets such as UAE, Egypt, Germany or Belgium.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Thanks to favorable selling prices, gross profit margins of many pangasius businesses increased and helped these companies continue to earn big profits in the first quarter of 2019.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Q.IV/2018, Pangasius export revenue to ASEAN markets reached US$57 million, up 35.6% compared to the same period in 2017. In 2018, the export turnover of pangasius to this market reached US$202.6 million, up 41.5% for which the 3 largest single export markets were: Thailand increased by 48.8%; Singapore increased by 20.7% and the Philippines increased by 32.1%.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) After a period of continuous decline, Vietnam's tuna export to the US in 2018 recovered in the last 3 months. Overall, total tuna export value from Vietnam to the US in 2018 still increased by 1.7% compared to 2017, reaching US$230 million. The reason for this growth was that the US restricted import of shipments from China due to the increase in tuna import tax.