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Vietnamese Shrimp export tended to decrease compared to the same period last year due to declining in shrimp prices, low demand from the main import markets. Shrimp prices in the early months of 2018 were affected by the world market factors due to cold weather, countries such as the US and Canada have experienced snowstorms so shrimp consumption significantly reduced, causing large inventory in Japan, Korea and EU. Besides, because the price of shrimps was going down so customers would have thinking of waiting for the “bottom” price to buy.

White leg shrimp still occupy the leading position in the structure of shrimp export products of Vietnam, accounting for 68.7%, black tiger shrimp accounts for 22.9% and marine shrimp 8.3%. In the first 10 months of 2018, the value of white leg shrimp exports decreased by 1%, while the export of black tiger shrimp decreased by 7% and marine shrimp by 32% compared to the same period last year. In the structure of white leg shrimp and black tiger shrimp exports, only white leg shrimp processing (HS 16) increased by 7%, exports of the remaining products all decreased. In October, Vietnam shrimp exports to big markets decreased sharply, such as EU (-30.6%), China (-38%), South Korea (-18.4%), Japan (- 5%). However, exports to the US increased slightly by 0.8%. Notably, shrimp exports to ASEAN increased well, up 55% over the same period last year.

EU

EU is Vietnam's largest importer of shrimp, accounting for 24.4% of Vietnam's shrimp exports. In the first two quarters of this year, Vietnam shrimp export to EU increased sharply in the context of shrimp export to big markets such as USA, China and Japan went down. However, in the third quarter of this year, shrimp export to this market began to decline. In October, shrimp export to the EU dropped sharply by 30.6% with the export value to the three biggest markets in the block decreased. However, thanks to good growth in the first two quarters, Vietnam shrimp exports to the EU market up to October this year still increased slightly by 4.4%, reaching US $ 724.7 million.  The UK, the Netherlands and Germany are the three largest shrimp importers of Vietnam in the EU. In the first ten months of this year, shrimp exports to the UK and Germany increased by 19% and 16% respectively while exports to the Netherlands fell by 1.4%.

The US

The US is the second largest shrimp importer of Vietnam, accounting for 18.2% of total shrimp export value of Vietnam. After the export of shrimp continuously fell from April to July, exports to this market have recovered positively in August, September and October. Export of shrimp to the US in the first 10 months of this year reached US $ 540.4 million, down 2.7% over the same period in 2017. The final result of the anti-dumping duty of Vietnamese shrimp during the 12th administrative review period - POR12 (from 1 February 2016 to 31 January 2017) was much better than the previous review. This has helped Vietnamese shrimp farmers to boost their sales to the US market in the coming time, especially in the period of holidays for the American consumers.

In addition, the US-China trade war is also an opportunity for shrimp exporting companies of Vietnam to promote export to this market because the US imposed high tariffs on Chinese goods. Shrimp prices have started to recover while demand tends to increase at the end of the year, hence, shrimp export to the US market is hoped to gain positive signals thanks to the low anti-dumping duty. Shrimp exports in the fourth quarter of this year are forecast to increase by about 2% over the same period last year, reaching about US $ 1.14 billion. Shrimp exports to the end of 2018 will reach US $ 3.8 billion, down 2% compared to 2017.

Huong Tra (Source: vasep.com.vn)