This is the result of the efforts of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's functional departments and units during the last Lunar New Year holiday in 2023, which are still actively maintaining connections and negotiating with Chinese authorities to deal with the situation. Manage technical barriers as soon as possible, and expand export markets for Vietnamese agricultural, forestry, and fishery products.
So far, the China Imported Food Enterprise Registration system (CIFER) has unveiled that more than 800 Vietnamese enterprises are eligible to export goods to the Chinese market.
On January 8, 2023, China started opening the border and lowered the level of anti-COVID-19 epidemic. China's removal of strict import controls such as testing, sterilization, and quarantine will relieve a major bottleneck and open more entryways for exports to the world's most populous market. This will be an opportunity and a benefit for Vietnamese businesses in the future. This year, exporters in this market are expected to be more beneficial, save a lot of money, and increase their competitiveness.
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), China is now the critical market for many Vietnamese seafood products. China has overtaked Japan to become Vietnam's second largest seafood import market in 2022. In particular, Vietnam's seafood exports to the Chinese market in 2022 reached 477,000 tons, equivalent to nearly 1.6 billion USD, a 33% increase in volume and a 61% increase in value over 2021. In which case, fish exports to China account for at least 30% of total export turnover. China is also one of Vietnam's top five shrimp import markets.
Although the Chinese market offers more opportunities, difficulties have begun to emerge as of the beginning of 2023. According to VASEP, Vietnam's seafood exports continued to fall sharply in January 2023, mirroring the trend seen in the final months of 2022 and correlated with the Lunar New Year holiday.
The year 2023 is predicted to be a difficult year for exporters due to the global economic recession, particularly the deep recession in G7 countries such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan, which has reduced demand for goods and food, causing seafood enterprises to lose many orders and is awaited to continue to decline in 2023.
According to VASEP, Vietnam's seafood exports in January 2023 totaled approximately 600 million USD, a 31% decrease from the same period in 2022. Many key export items decreased, such as pangasius, which decreased by 50%; shrimp, which decreased by 46%; tuna, which decreased by 32%; squid, which increased by 4%; and other marine fish species, which increased by 6%. Seafood exports to major markets fell precipitously in January 2023. The US fell by 56%, China - Hong Kong fell by 55%, and the EU fell by 35%...
Mr. Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of VASEP, said that Vietnam's seafood exports to China will gradually regain growth momentum beginning in the second quarter of 2023. When China opens its border, Vietnam's seafood exports to this market are expected to increase to compensate for the decline in the G7 market. Under this optimistic view, our country's seafood export turnover could reach $10 billion USD in 2023.
Hai Dang