Media report says that Vietnam seafood processors are facing with a huge pressure on scarce raw material supply, particularly shrimp, tuna, mollusks because domestic raw material production is not sufficient. With high import duty (12-18 percent) on raw fish, local seafood processors can not afford to import raw material for processing and exporting. Vietnman is one of the leading seafood exporters in the world but due to lack of raw materials such as raw shrimp, marine fish and unstable supply of pangasius, it is facing tough time.
The cause of the shortage is the reduction of catch landing because the East Sea insecurity has prevented fishermen from going offshore fishing. In the Mekong Delta, despite the shrimp farming area is 600,000 hectares, bringing over 1 million MT of shrimp annually, local shrimp processors can not find enough raw material for operating, especially in the early or the end of the year.
Local seafood enterprises surveyed by Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that they were in need of importing raw material for processing and they propose to be exempted from import tax on raw fish. The main suppliers of raw fish for Vietnam are Japan, ASEAN, Taiwan, South Korea, the U.S. The import portion surely has no impact to local fish production. Thus, Vietnamese seafood enterprises wanted consideration in import tax exemption in raw material supply for processing so that the export could reach the target of US$6.5 – 6.7 billion by 2015 and US$8 billion by 2020 planned by the Government.
