After a few months of deep decline, Vietnam's seafood exports began to recover with the positive impact of supportive policies; thus businesses expect to increase exports of key products.

Shutchi catfish exports to the US show many positive signs. Photo: V.S 

Shrimp export is growing in many markets

According to information from the Sales Department of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company (FMC), this enterprise's shrimp exports to six main markets, including the United States; Japan, Australia, Korea, EU and UK in the first nine months of 2021 achieved sales of nearly US$150 million.

In which, the US market alone reached nearly US$50 million, accounting for over 32% of market share, an increase of nearly 5% over the same period in 2020. According to FMC's analysis, the increase in export market share to the US proves that the US opened for consumption early and the demand for food, including shrimp, increased.

The market share of Vietnamese shrimp in the United States also increased from about 8% (2020) to nearly 10% (March 9, 2021).

However, from October 1, 2021, Tokyo will open, promising that the demand for services and restaurants will increase. In the fourth quarter of this year, FMC will increase supply in the Japanese market.

According to Ms. Kim Thu, the shrimp market expert of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), after a deep decrease in August 2021 and the first half of September, shrimp production and exports in the second half of September have shown more positive signs, especially in some key shrimp provinces such as Soc Trang, Bac Lieu and Ca Mau.

Thanks to good disease control, businesses have both made efforts to fight the pandemic while trying to maintain production. Therefore, although there is still a downward trend, shrimp exports to markets have slowed down. According to the data of the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in September 2021, Vietnam's shrimp exports are still on a downward trend of 20% to reach US$308.5 million. By the end of September 2021, shrimp exports reached US$2.76 billion, up 2.7% over the same period in 2020.

The above results show that the main import markets for Vietnamese shrimp are on the rebound thanks to these countries' widespread vaccination and deployment of post-Covid-19 support packages.

The service, restaurant and tourism sectors have gradually reopened. It is worth noting that the reserves of these import markets are not much to serve the demand for festive occasions of the year while large shrimp supplies such as India, Indonesia are severely affected by Covid-19, and have not recovered. Therefore, Vietnamese shrimp has a lot of opportunities for export growth if firms know how to take advantage of opportunities.

Confidently carrying out export orders in the last months of the year, Mr. Ho Quoc Luc, former Vice Chairman of VASEP, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company, said that Resolution 128 of the Government on "Safely adapting, flexibly, effectively controlling the Covid-19 pandemic", in which there are four colors according to the pandemic risk level. At any level, businesses can operate within regulatory frameworks. Thus, now businesses that are not related to virus cases are allowed to open their doors and arrange for recovery according to their ability.

“Hopefully with the Government's Resolution 128, despite facing many difficulties, along with the courage to be tested for a long time, shrimp enterprises will overcome the recent insecurity and strive for quickly recovering production capacity, speeding up the processing speed, striving to fulfill the set export turnover target in 2021," Mr. Ho Quoc Luc said.

Employee retention

Shutchi catfish also has the prospect of increasing in the coming months. According to the Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Control Department (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), seafood processing and export in the southern provinces and cities accounts for 70-75% of the country's turnover value.

By the end of September 2021, in 19 provinces and cities in the Southern region, there were 449 export seafood factories, of which the number of establishments stopping production was 176, accounting for 39%.

Shutchi catfish exports in the first months of the year grew quite well, but in August, due to many enterprises stopping production, export turnover suddenly decreased.

Export turnover in August reached US$85 million, down 31% compared to July. In September 2021, shutchi catfish export value to most major markets continued to decrease.

Some shutchi catfish exporters to the US and Egypt try to find ways to adapt to the disease and ensure health and safety for production, so the value of pangasius exports to the US in September reached US$22.8 million, up 20.8%; exports to Egypt reached US$3.6 million, up 61.7%.

According to information from Vinh Hoan Joint Stock Company, shutchi catfish export turnover to the US in September this year continued to increase strongly by 79% over the same period last year, equivalent to VND344 billion in revenue. Export turnover to the European market also increased by 11%, however, exports to China decreased by 38%.

By the end of September 2021, the total export value of Vietnamese shutchi catfish reached US$1.07 billion, up 3.2% over the same period in 2020.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Vice President of VASEP, said the number of shutchi catfish factories still operating "3 on the spot" model only maintains about 14 units in six key shutchi catfish farming provinces with production capacity of only 20-30%. In which, businesses mainly gather workers to change product packaging and return signed orders. Entering October, many businesses have not yet planned to reopen production. Besides, the shortage of human resources due to isolation, infection, and lack of finance to operate during the pandemic are also big obstacles for businesses to resume production.

In order for aquaculture production activities of the whole country and the Mekong Delta to be stable without interruption as well as lack of raw materials for processing and export in the last months of 2021 and in the first months of 2022, at a recent meeting with the Mekong Delta provinces, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan assigned relevant units to synthesize and propose to report on vaccination against Covid-19 for staff participating in all stages of the seafood production and trading chain, especially shutchi catfish, shrimp and other agricultural product chains.

According to some businesses, the pandemic could return, which makes workers reluctant to move far away to find work. This change of mind is beneficial for seafood processing and exporting enterprises in the Mekong Delta provinces, especially in the South Hau River region in recovering and accelerating seafood exports in the last months of the year.