Wood and seafood are the two items that are most likely to benefit when the CPTPP comes into effect. According to the recent report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the first quarter of 2019, seafood exports grew slightly by 0.5% over the same period last year, reaching US$ 1.8 billion.
Notably, the export value to many member countries of the CPTPP grew strongly such as Mexico increased by 35.6%, Malaysia increased by nearly 22%, Canada increased nearly 14%. Meanwhile, Japan maintained the top importer of Vietnamese seafood.
Among CPTPP member countries, Vietnam can boost export to the Canadian market. According to the assessment of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with the effectiveness of CPTPP, Vietnam's seafood export to the Canadian market is expected to grow positively. Import duties on seafood products into Canada such as frozen shrimp, processed shrimp, mollusks, tra fish, tuna, etc from Vietnam all dropped to 0% right after the Agreement came into effect.
According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Entrepreneurs, Canada has been named among the top 10 shrimp import markets of Vietnam for many years. Although shrimp exports to this market are not strong and continuous, but Canada is considered a potential market for Vietnamese shrimp because of its position close to the US and the people’s high living standard. Canada is currently the 6th largest shrimp import market of Vietnam and accounts for nearly 5% of Vietnam's total shrimp exports to markets.
In 10 years (2007-2016), exporting Vietnamese shrimp to Canada was unstable, ranging from US$ 65.5 to 201.5 million. However, from 2016 up to now, Vietnam shrimp export to Canada has continuously grown from US$ 122.5 million in 2016 to US$ 156 million in 2018. In 2018, Canada boosted the import of shrimp from Vietnam with the amount of 14,000 tons, worth nearly US$ 156 million, up 8.9% in volume and 7.3% in value compared to 2017. Vietnam shrimp accounted for a high share in Canada's total imports market share, although the price of Vietnamese shrimp is higher than the country's average import price. The market share of Vietnamese shrimp in Canada has increased from 23% in 2017 to 25.3% in 2018. In 2018, Vietnam is the 4th largest seafood supply market for Canada with a value of US$ 232 million, an increase of 8.8% compared to 2017.
As of March 15, 2019, exporting Vietnam shrimp to Canada reached US$ 23.8 million, an increase of 7.5% compared to the same period in 2018. In recent years, Canada consumed a lot of warm water shrimp of Southeast Asian countries in the context of declining supply of cold water shrimp. Recent reports showed that coldwater shrimp production in Canada has dropped sharply in 2019 as shrimp biomass surveys at Canadian fishing grounds showed poor results. This can be considered a favorable factor for exporting Vietnamese shrimp to Canada. According to the World Trade Center (ITC), Vietnam is still the largest shrimp supplier to this market, accounting for 30.3% market share in Canada. India and China ranked second and third with 26.3% and 16.9% of the market, respectively. Earlier this year, the CPTPP was officially in force for Vietnam, in which Vietnam and Canada were both members. And this is a good opportunity for Vietnamese shrimp enterprises to take advantage from the Canadian market because Vietnam's competitors in this market such as India, Thailand and Indonesia do not participate in the CPTPP. With these advantages, experts recommend that Vietnamese enterprises need to study the market carefully, focusing on the factors of price, design and quality to increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese shrimp products on this market.
Huong Tra