Last year Vietnam has exported over 250,000 MT of marine products, valued at approximately US$900 million. In which tuna export value reached US$293 million, accounted for 5.8 percent of total seafood export value, mollusk accounted for US$489 million (9.7 percent), crustaceans (ex. shrimp) approximately US$112 million, accounting for 2.2 percent and the rest were other marine fish.
For tuna 2010 was considered as a successful year of Vietnamese tuna export because both volume and value of tuna export to most markets grew strongly. The main reasons for such a growth were high average export price of tuna, increase in consumption, while some countries were proposing to cut the quota of some tuna species.
The main largest importers of Vietnamese tuna included the U.S., Japan, Thailand, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Iran, Spain, the Netherlands and Canada, representing about 79 percent. Tuna export to most major markets increased sharply from 12 -130 percent, exception for Germany and Israel fell 18 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
As far as the mollusk is concern 2010 was considered even better as the export of mollusk has reached 125,000 MT, worth US$489 million, accounting for 9.7 percent of total seafood export value. Top 10 largest importers were South Korea, Japan, Italy, Spain, Thailand, the U.S., Portugal, Taiwan, China and Belgium, accounting for 83 percent of total export value. Mollusk export to major markets increased compared to 2009 in which the largest growth was Israel with 116 percent.
Besides, there were potential items like crab, swimming crab and other crustaceans registering high growth. Their export volume in 2010 reached 16,000 MT, worth US$112 million, representing 2.2 percent of total seafood export value. There were 127 exporters to 38 markets.
