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Trade - Service
Sep 29, 2017 / 15:11

EU becomes the biggest shrimp importers of Vietnam

Nguyen Tung

According to statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs and Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), in the first 8 months, shrimp export from Vietnam to European Union (EU) is 483.6 million USD, up 30% compared to the same period of 2016.

With this growth rate, EU has overcome Japan to be the biggest shrimp import market from Vietnam. According to VASEP, as of August, exporting shrimp in 03 major country members of EU including England, Netherlands, and Belgium have increase in two digit numbers of 46.5%, 47.8% and 34.1%, respectively.
 
Shrimp processing for export.
Shrimp processing for export.
This positive result is due to the favor of EU’s customers toward fresh seafood products; and foreign partners increase import shrimp for festivals and holidays at the end of the year. AT present, in the EU market for shrimp, major competition for Vietnam is coming from India and Ecuador. While India has the tendency of reducing shrimp export to EU, Ecuador and Vietnam have been increasing exporting this seafood to EU market. Especially, the Free trade agreement (FTA) between Ecuador and EU has come into force since January 01, 2017, resulting in the import tariff to 0% compared to the previous tariff of 3.6%. As such, this has increased competitiveness of Ecuador’s shrimp to other suppliers. 

In order to increase shrimp export from Vietnam to EU market, representative of VASEP said, enterprises have to understand the preferential custom tariff and rule of origins stipulated in the Vietnam – EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which will be effective in 2018. Besides, enterprises have to ensure the compliance to requirements and verification procedures of EU, as well as procedures for packaging and label. With the EVFTA is near approaching, enterprises should consider taking effort in innovating, improving capabilities and the product quality in their strategy ahead new challenges and opportunities. 

On the other hand, EU customers will more and more in favor of sustainable produced seafood products in both retailing channels and food & beverage services. As such, enterprises should pay attention to the packing and label for product verification, which is one of the main factor to access this market. At present, EU is contributing approx. 30% of the total value of shrimp import in the world, ranging from 6 – 8 billion USD per year. In the recent 10 years (2007 – 2016), shrimp export to EU from Vietnam has increased from 5.6 billion USD to 6.7 billion USD in 2016. 

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