Exports of shrimp, tra fish, tuna,… simultaneously dropped

As informed by VASEP, after more than a month of operation in the context of social distancing and the "3-on the spot" modes, in August, seafood exports were estimated at about USD 520 million, down 36% over the same period last year, showing signs of decrease in most key products.

Exports of shrimp, tra fish, tuna, squid, octopus, crabs and other marine fish in August this year all decreased by 35-40% in comparison to the same period in 2020.

Thanks to the good export results in the first seven months of the year, cumulatively in the first 8 months, seafood exports still increased by about 6%, estimated at USD 5.5 billion. To be more specific, shrimp exports reached nearly USD 2.4 billion, up 4%, tra fish exports still maintain their growth rate of 7%, reaching USD  980 million. Tuna export during these eight months also increased by over 10%, reaching USD 460 million. In the meantime, exports of squid, octopus and other fish only have a slight increase of  2% to 4% respectively.

As the Covid-19 situation remains intense in the southern provinces, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and several provinces in the Southeast region (Dong Nai, Binh Duong), the implementation of vaccination for workers in industrial zones and export processing zones is still limited and uneven, resulting in a not-so-well seafood production and export situation in September. Therefore, VASEP has prognosticated that seafood exports in September will continue to decrease by at least 20%, achieving about USD 660 million only.

Looking at the scenario after September, most seafood processing workers are vaccinated, companies do not have to be limited in "3 on the spot" production, exports in the last three months of the year will slightly recover and may achieve a turnover of about USD 8.5-8.6 billion, in which shrimp exports are forecast to reach about USD 3.9-4 billion, tra fish about USD 1.5 billion, seafood exports about USD 3.1 billion.