Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – With its continuous growth over the past 10 years, ASEANhas become an important market for Vietnamese seafood, and the prospect of 1billion USD worth of yearly seafood export revenue is reachable.
Accordingto the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Vietnam’sseafood export turnover to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)hit 612 million USD in 2017, up from only 66 million USD in 1998.
Althoughthe figure remained modest compared with exports to major markets like the US, the EU, Japanand China,ASEAN ranked fifth among the most important markets of Vietnamese seafood.
The10-member group maintained this position in the first six months of this year,with most exports to ASEAN posting positive growth. Of note, ASEAN surpassedthe Republic of Korea (RoK) to become Vietnam’s biggest fried fish paste andsurimi importer with a value of 43 million USD.
AmongASEAN countries, Thailand has been the largest partner of Vietnam’s fishery sector,as reflected through the export revenue of 248 million USD in 2017 and morethan 185 million USD in the first eight months of this year.
Thailandis the only ASEAN country among the top 10 single markets of Vietnameseseafood, together with countries like the US,Japan, China, the RoK, the Netherlandsand the UK.
AfterThailand, the Philippines and Singaporeare Vietnam’ssecond and third largest seafood importers in the group.
Vietnamesefishery products have been shipped to all other ASEAN countries, with top itemsbeing saltwater fish, tra fish, cuttlefish and octopus.
VASEPsaid Vietnam has potential to step up its seafood exports to the group with acombined population of 632 million whose seafood demand is forecast to risefrom 24.5 million tonnes in 2015 to 36.9 million tonnes in 2030 and 41.7million tonnes in 2050.
Seafoodtrading in ASEAN stands at 20 billion USD each year and is expected to expandby 3.7 percent annually in the years to come.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos,Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.-VNA
VNA
