It is no denying fact that the shrimp price has been skyrocketing, while processing factories cannot purchase enough shrimp and run at just 30-50 percent of capacity. Ministry of Industry and Trade revealed that seafood export revenues in the first four months of 2010 increased sharply by 20.3 percent over 2009 to $1.3 billion. Shrimp remains the key export item among seafood exports.
As domestic processing facilities lack materials there will be shortage of seafood export revenue in the time to come. The ministry said that the domestic processing factories can meet only 30-50 percent of the demand from processing companies. In 2009, due to the global economic crisis, seafood export revenue decreased by 6 percent. Truong Dinh Hoe, Secretary General of the Vietnam Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), examined shrimp export prospects in 2010 and cited that production costs of farming and domestic shrimp output, not export markets, will decide the turnover.
While Vietnam’s shrimp exports have been increasing steadily, its shrimp output has not. In the last five years, shrimp exports have experienced double digit growth each year, but shrimp output has increased much more slowly and shrimp farming areas have also shrunk. The industry report that in the first quarter of 2010 shrimp exports rose significantly but the total shrimp output increased by only 6.1 percent and thus pushing prices up.
