Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - ASEAN, Vietnam’s eighth-largest importer of shrimp, is likely to expand its market share of such exports, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has said.
The bloc is an important export market for Vietnam’s fisheries sector thanks to incentives from the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and several other agreements.
Thanks to Vietnam’s control over the COVID-19 pandemic, the sector has maintained stability in shrimp farming, processing, and export.
However, Vietnamese shrimp exports face fierce competition from Indonesia in the US and the EU, and from India in Japan.
As a result, many firms in the field have chosen to expand their exports to ASEAN in a bid to reduce reliance on certain specific markets.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, ASEAN member states are close to Vietnam geographically and have similarities in terms of culture and consumption behaviour.
The region boasts a population of 636 million and a combined GDP of 2.76 trillion USD, so it has abundant space for Vietnamese exports, including shrimp.
In the first 10 months of 2020, Vietnam exported 37.5 million USD worth of shrimp products to the bloc, an annual decline of 14.2 percent. Singapore and Cambodia were its top importers in the region./.
VNA
