Vietnam's shrimp exports forecast to face market difficulties in 2017: association

HANOI, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's shrimp exports are forecast to face difficulties of technical and trade barriers in its key markets in 2017, according to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on Wednesday.

Specifically, since the beginning of 2017, the Australian government banned imports of un-cooked shrimp and even marinated shrimp, into the market for fear of white spot syndrome virus. Vietnam is among the biggest shrimp providers to Australia as accounting for over 30 percent of the total import value of the item into Australia.

According to VASEP, the sudden change by the Australian government without any transition period has posed many difficulties and caused damage to Vietnamese seafood exporters, as most marinated shrimp for Australian demand cannot be consumed in other markets.

Not only in Australia, recently, the South Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries announced that they will take quarantine measures against any seafood imported into the country, including shrimp which Vietnam is the largest supplier.

Truong Dinh Hoe, VASEP general secretary, said on Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA that since 2016, South Korea started to tighten quality demands by inspecting some 10 percent of frozen shrimp shipments from Vietnam, laying more difficulty for Vietnamese exporters to the market.

In addition to technical barrier, this year, Vietnamese shrimp exports will continue to face fierce competition from its competitors in key market, as well as high anti-dumping tax in the U.S., Vietnam's biggest shrimp consumer, assessed VASEP.

In order to realize the set target of earning 3.4 billion U.S. dollars from shrimp export in 2017 and 10 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, great efforts by the whole sector are needed, said Hoe.

Official statistics showed that in 2016, Vietnam earned 3.1 billion U.S. dollars from shrimp exports, up nearly 4 percent year-on-year. The country ranks third worldwide in shrimp production after China and Indonesia while among the world's biggest shrimp exporters.