After decreasing by 16% in May 2020 to reach 639 million USD, seafood exports in June continued to decrease by 10%, estimated at 626 million USD. Accumulated in the first 6 months of 2020, the country's seafood export is estimated at over 3.5 billion USD, down 10% over the same period last year.
The Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said that the Covid epidemic has not subsided in the world, continuing to affect Vietnam's seafood exports to markets in the second quarter of 2020. After falling 16% in May to 639 million USD, seafood exports in June continued to decrease by 10% to 626 million USD. Accumulated in the first 6 months of 2020, the country's seafood export is estimated at over 3.5 billion USD, down 10% over the same period last year. Among the commodities, the biggest drop was pangasius 31%, tuna and octopus both down 20%, other marine fish slightly down 2%. Only shrimp kept a modest increase of nearly 3%.
The cause is the strong outbreak of Covid 19 and complicated global developments affecting the world seafood industry, causing seafood consumption to decrease, the trend to change, orders to decrease by 35 - 50%. Social distancing causes domestic production and international trade to stagnate, businesses face shortage of processing materials, difficult transportation and payment, and lack of capital to maintain and restore operations.
The restaurant and service sector (HORECA) stagnated, the consumption of main aquatic species for this segment decreased, causing the price of seafood products to decrease simultaneously in the world market. Key commodities such as shrimp, pangasius, cod, salmon, seabass, tilapia, squid, and octopus were all reduced in price, causing a decrease in the revenue of exporters.
According to VASEP, the Covid epidemic caused exports to China and South Korea to decline sharply in the first two months of the year, from March, the epidemic subsided in China and broke out in European countries and the US, causing exports to these markets. strongly affected. By the end of June, seafood exports to the EU fell the most with 35%, to the US decreased by 6%, to ASEAN decreased by 17%, to Korea decreased by 9%, to China by 3% and to Japan by 5%. Only a few markets with a slight increase in imports from Vietnam are the UK and Canada, but they only account for a small proportion of the country's total seafood exports.
In June and the next few months, seafood trade in the world market has not shown signs of optimism when the Covid-19 epidemic broke out for the second time and increased sharply in major markets of the US, EU, China... In the last 2 weeks. , after rumors of corona virus in imported seafood, the Chinese market was disturbed, transactions were stalled, China tightened inspection of imported goods, causing Vietnam's seafood exports (shrimp, fish) tra) to this market also slowed down and prices fell.
However, there are still optimistic signs for exports as retail sales in the world market remain stable or increase for frozen, canned, marinated and smoked seafood with longer shelf life. The world's seafood trade is stagnant because of disrupted transportation, but the trend of electronic trading and online retail will partially compensate for the drop in demand in the market.
In addition, the EVFTA agreement that takes effect from August 1, 2020 will probably be a "bump" for Vietnam's seafood exports in the last months of the year, especially those items that are entitled to 0% tax as soon as they arrive. The agreement is in effect such as black tiger shrimp, frozen white leg shrimp, processed squid and octopus, bivalve molluscs and duty-free quota products such as canned tuna and surimi.