Vietnam's export value of cuttlefish and octopus in the first ten months of 2013 fell to the lowest rate in the 10-month period due to the global economic crisis.

The Vietnam Association of Exporters Producers (VASEP) reports that the total export value of that sea life saw a year-on-year reduction of 14.4 percent to 360.5 million USD in the first ten months of this year.

The reduction in export value was due to slow business in the three key export markets of Japan, the Republic of Korea and the EU, accounting for 75 percent of the nation's total exports of the marine life, the association said.

Many cuttlefish and octopus exporters were worried about their exports, because customers reduced orders and volume, the report said.

Local cuttlefish and octopus exporters said, some orders from the EU in the first ten months of this year were reduced by 50-60 percent against the same period last year.

Also, cuttlefish and octopus exports to the Republic of Korea, the largest export market for Vietnamese cuttle fish and octopus products, also dropped 9 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Meanwhile, exports of those products to Japan increased 3.7 percent in value in January, but fell between 7.9 percent and 54.3 percent for the nine months from February to September, the association said.

* Shellfish exports

The association also reported that shellfish exports to most markets over the past 11 months have earned 63.565 million USD – a slight decrease compared to from the same period last year.

According to VASEP, the US is now the third largest importer of shellfish products from Vietnam, after the EU and Japan, due to a sharp decline of 23 percent to 4.512 million USD since early this year.

In the reviewed period, the US mainly imported processed products worth 3.4 million USD, accounting for 77.8 percent of its total shellfish imports from Vietnam.

Vietnam's fresh and frozen shellfish exports to the US in the past 10 months dropped 20.6 percent and 27.1 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year.-VNA