Vietnam Becomes The Fourth Largest Seafood Exporter To Japan

Vietnam has emerged as the fourth-largest seafood exporter to Japan, with its products making up 7% of Japan’s total seafood imports in January 2021, an increase of 0.4% compared to data a year earlier, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.


 
Japan Customs statistics indicate that the Far East nation imported a total of 165,030 tonnes of seafood worth $997.9 million in January, representing a decline of 4.8% in volume and 16.9% in value against January 2020.
 
January also witnessed Vietnam join the likes of China, Chile, Norway, and Thailand as the largest seafood exporters to the Japanese market, of which it represented its fourth-biggest seafood supplier in January.
 
The General Statistics Office (GSO) stated that the Japanese market imported 4,900 tonnes of shrimp worth $42.6 million in January, up 25.6% in volume and 22.7% in value, thereby making it the largest consumer of Vietnamese shrimp.
 
Seafood exports expected to reach $8.8 billion in 2021
 
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has forecast that seafood exports will hit $8.8 billion this year, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent.
 
The association said the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global trade in seafood, changing consumption trends for aquatic products.
 
However, the main importers of Vietnamese seafood such as the EU, China, South Korea, and Japan only slightly decreased their imports from Vietnam by 3 to 6 percent, while the largest market, the US, still increased significantly at 10 percent.
 
Other markets like Russia, the UK, Australia, and Canada even hiked by 10-32 percent.
Vietnamese seafood exports fell sharply by 10 percent and 7 percent in the first quarter and second quarter of last year respectively, but from the third quarter began to recover.
 
The country's seafood output was estimated at 8.4 million tonnes by the end of last year, a slight increase of 3 percent compared to 2019.
 
*Source: vietnamtimes.org.vn