Fishermen in the central coastal province of Khánh Hòa. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI - Việt Nam’s seafood exports remained heavily dependent on natural sources, which have become increasingly difficult to secure due to tightening regulations and limited local marine farming, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The association reported that in the first seven months of 2024, exports reached US$2.1 billion, an increase of six per cent compared to last year.

Vietnamese seafood was exported to 129 markets around the world, with its largest buyers being Japan, the US and South Korea. Up to the end of July, Việt Nam exported $444 million worth of seafood to Japan, a decrease of four per cent period-on-period, $300 million to the US, an increase of 14 per cent and $207 million to South Korea, an increase of 12 per cent.

According to VASEP, tuna was the country’s leading product in terms of export value. In the first seven months of this year, Việt Nam’s canned tuna exports to the US and the EU rose by 22 per cent and 36 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, Vietnamese tuna exported to other large markets including Israel, Russia and South Korea also recorded strong growth.

Notably, Vietnamese canned tuna to the EU reached $62 million, accounting for nearly half of the country’s tuna exports to the bloc with Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Cyprus and Denmark being the main buyers.

Vietnamese seafood exporters, however, have voiced their concerns over recent regulations on the sizes of natural catches. They cited Decree 37/2024/ND-CP, effective from May 19, 2024, which requires the size for skipjack tuna to be at least half a metre.

It has blocked seafood companies from buying skipjack tuna catches from fishermen, as they claimed there was no way to ensure all fish in any catch meets the Government’s size regulations.

“While the new regulations are important to the protection of fishery resources in the long-term, companies may face difficulties in securing the raw materials, which may threaten their foothold in large export markets,” said Vũ Duyên Hải, head of the Department of Fisheries Exploitation from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Industry experts said tuna exports will likely find it challenging to maintain growth until the end of the year, with the $1 billion export target for the year an extremely unlikely goal.

Meanwhile, squid and octopus ranked second in value among Vietnamese seafood, reaching $351 million with South Korea being the largest buyer with purchases worth $140 million, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the products’ total export value, an increase of 13 per cent compared to the same period last year.

According to VASEP, South Korea has been reducing imports from other sources including Japan, China and Peru, to purchase more from Việt Nam, with industry experts saying Việt Nam’s squid and octopus export to South Korea will likely experience strong growth in the remaining months of 2024.

Việt Nam relies on three main sources for its seafood: fishing, marine farming and imports. According to the Directorate of Fisheries, in 2023 the country’s total marine farming output reached 789.8 thousand tonnes, an increase of 10.1 per cent compared to the previous year.

While it has been expected that the output this year will top 900 thousand tonnes, farmed seafood, including groupers, seabass, lobsters and bivalve molluscs, has not been able to match the strength of Việt Nam’s exports of products such as tuna, mackerel and octopus.

According to the directorate, the country currently has 85,980 fishing vessels, of which 39,867 vessels are between 6-12m in length, 16,561 vessels are between 12-15m in length, 27,022 vessels are between 15-24m in length and 2,530 vessels are over 24m in length.

In recent years, the Fovernment has implemented solutions to combat illegal fishing, an attempt to remove the "yellow card" warning from the European Commission (EC) imposed in 2017.