USD 1.3 billion in 10 months: a new record for fishery product export to China

For many years China has been one of the most important and "billion-dollar" markets for Vietnamese fishery products. The value of Vietnam’s fishery product exports to China reached the highest level in history in 2019 with over USD 1.2 billion, putting fishery products in the top 3 most valuable commodities in the group of agricultural, forestry and fishery product exported to China.

In 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic left a severe impact on the global supply chain, fishery product exports to China continuously decreased, resulting in a turnover of below USD 1 billion, pushing fishery products out of the top 3.

However, from the beginning of 2022 until now, exports of fishery products to China have experienced growth once again and even brought more profit than before. Information from the General Department of Customs shows that, by the end of October 2022, fishery product exports to China reached over USD 1.3 billion, an increase of 82% over the same period in 2021. It only took 10 months of this year for fishery product exports to China set a new record in value, surpassing the old record in 2019.

There are many reasons when it comes to the impressive growth of fishery product exports to China in the context that the country is maintaining the "Zero Covid" policy. First of all, although the "Zero Covid" policy makes it more or less difficult for fishery products to be imported into China, it has also greatly affected the country's domestic seafood production. The billion-people market is always in a state of shortage of raw fishery products to serve domestic demand and export processing, hence the sharp increase in China's fishery product import demand this year.

According to the Import and Export Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in the first nine months of the year, China's fishery product imports reached USD 13.5 billion, up approximately 40% over the same period in 2021.

Among the world's largest seafood import markets, China’s import growth far exceeds the others. According to information from the International Trade Center (ITC), also in the first 9 months of this year, the growth of fishery product imports to the US was 17.3%, Japan was 11.4% and South Korea was 20.8%.

The Import-Export Department assesses that the increasing trend of China's fishery product imports is going to be maintained in the third quarter of 2022 and is likely to continue in the last months of 2022.

As one of the main fishery products imported into China, shrimp experiences the strongest growth this year. In the first eight months of 2022, China's shrimp imports reached USD 3.77 billion, up 66.3% over the same period in 2021. In August alone, China spent USD 680 million to import shrimp, which is a new record for imports.

Following this momentum, Vietnam's shrimp exports to this market also increased very strongly. Data from China Customs shows that, in the first eight months of this year, Vietnam's shrimp imports into China reached USD 198 million, up 98.5%, nearly doubling the same period in 2021.

Dr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Fimexvn, said that although China's shrimp import volume (approximately 900,000 tons) was only second after the USA (nearly 1 million tons), China may in fact be the largest shrimp consumer market in the world because the domestic shrimp production of this country is also large, while the domestic shrimp production of the US is not much. Vietnam's shrimp industry needs to clearly define this market to have the right orientation for export.

In Vietnam’s fishery product export structure in the 10 months of 2022, shrimp is still the item with the largest value with nearly USD 3.8 billion, up 19% over the same period in 2021. It is expected that by the end of December, shrimp exports may reach a new record of over USD 4.4 billion. Pangasius exports in the past 10 months have reached nearly USD 2.2 billion, up 80% compared to the same period last year.

Pangasius export is also on the path of reaching a new record of over USD 2.5 billion. Tuna export by the end of October is estimated at USD 890 million, up 50% over the same period in 2021, potentially reaching the export milestone of USD 1 billion for the first time.