As per the statistics of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam has earned US$3.038 billion from exporting 873,513MT of seafood in the first nine months of 2009. It means there is a 6.1 percent decrease in volume and 9.1 percent in value compared to the same period last year. In terms of key categories, shrimp exports increased by 6.4 percent in volume but decreased by 1.2 percent in value, while Pangasius exports reduced by 8.6 percent in volume and 8.9 percent in value, tuna exports value was down 13.5 percent, and cephalopods export volume was down 11.7 percent.
Viet Nam’s seafood products are sold to 155 markets in the world. Vietnam’s seafood product has potential market in EU, the U.S. and Japan, together represented 60.6 percent of total export value. Seafood exports to the U.S. seemed more promising with plus growth rates in eight straight months, but in September exports to this market suddenly reduced by 26.8 percent in value, leading to a 3.2 percent decrease in total seafood export value in the first nine months despite a 14.7 percent rise in volume, reaching 89,724MT.
However, Vietnam seafood export has emerging market in China, South Korea, ASEAN, Australia and Canada. All these markets showed promising signs with two digits growth rate in September in both volume and value.
