Seafood exports in April 2024 reached 770 million USD, up % over the same period last year. Exports of tuna, pangasius, crab, and shellfish of all types all recorded positive growth. However, shrimp exports are equivalent to April 2023 and exports of squid, octopus and some other marine fish species are still lower than the same period. Cumulatively in the first 4 months of 2024, seafood exports reached a total of 2.7 billion USD, up 6% over the same period in 2023.

With a turnover of 285 million USD, there was no growth over the same period, but shrimp exports in April 2024 still reached the highest level since the beginning of the year. Accumulated in the first 4 months of the year, the shrimp industry brought in sales of 971 million USD, 6% higher than the same period in 2023. According to businesses, shrimp exports to markets show signs of recovery because importers' inventories have decreased, so import demand has begun to return. However, actual consumer demand has not clearly shown the ability to recover. The average price of shrimp exports to markets is still low compared to 2022 and 2023. Vietnam's shrimp industry is in a "suspense" phase due to information related to anti-subsidy taxes. Currently, the US is considering recognizing Vietnam as having a market economy, hoping to achieve positive results that will help remove CVD tax barriers and relieve the burden on Vietnamese shrimp export enterprises.

Pangasius exports in April increased by 13% to 168 million USD, which is also a green signal worth worrying about, after a continuous decline in February and March. In particular, exports are more positive in the US market, especially after pangasius enterprises participated in the North American Seafood Exhibition in March, followed by the Global Seafood Exhibition in Spain at the end of April. The main products are frozen pangasius fillets. Enterprises tend to increase the introduction of deeply processed pangasius products and value-added products, attracting a lot of attention from importers and visitors. Cumulatively in the first 4 months of the year, pangasius exports reached 579 million USD, up nearly 2% over the same period last year.

Tuna exports in April increased by 28% to over 86 million USD, bringing the total export value in the first 4 months of the year to 301 million USD, up 22% over the same period last year. Compared to other industries, tuna has had more stable growth in the past 4 months (except for February, which decreased by 11% due to the Lunar New Year holiday). However, according to tuna businesses, imports from markets increased again because inventories decreased, not because of better markets and better export prices.

While squid and octopus exports decreased by 14% in April, shellfish exports increased by 14%. Cumulatively in the first 4 months of this year, these two industries brought in sales of 182 million USD, down 4%, and 43 million USD, down 2% compared to the same period in 2023.

The export processing industry of tuna, squid, octopus and other marine fish all have the same bottleneck: lack of raw materials, because the exploitation output is not enough to meet demand, so additional supply from imports must be provided. However, EU market regulations and Vietnam's new regulations related to IUU exploitation are causing further bottlenecks in raw materials. For example, related to imported seafood raw materials; The regulations in Decree 37/2024 just issued in April 2024 requiring notification and declaration of documents 72 hours before docking for foreign ships and 48 hours for container ships are not feasible. Or Decree 37 stipulates: Do not mix aquatic materials originating from imported exploitation with aquatic materials originating from domestic exploitation into the same export shipment. The new regulations with the unclear concept of "mixing raw materials" cause confusion for businesses and are not reasonable with the actual production and export of seafood businesses.

Crab exports up to April still maintained an impressive growth of 101%, with the main market being China and the dominant product being live crabs. In addition to live crabs, there are other products such as live lobsters, sea cucumbers... from Vietnam that still have a large potential in China because of their favorable geographical location and are not subject to competitive pressure like frozen goods.

In terms of market, among the top 5 largest importing countries, only exports to Japan and Korea increased slightly in April; While exports to the EU and US were only at the same level or slightly decreased, in particular, exports to China - HK decreased by over 22%. In general, markets are still affected by inflation and inventory, so imports are still cautious. Typically, the Chinese market has continuously declined since February, after increasing sharply in January to serve Lunar New Year demand. The Chinese market has many sources of supply and competitive prices, so Chinese partners have many choices and find ways to buy at low prices.

It is expected that inventory and oversupply problems will gradually decrease and become more favorable for seafood exporters in the second half of the year; At that time, exports can recover if the bottlenecks in seafood raw materials, including shrimp and pangasius, are opened.

Source: VASEP