Aquatic product exports to US surge

Shrimp remains the biggest currency earner, bringing home 198 million USD from the US in the first four months of this year. (Photo:VNA)

The export of aquatic products to the United States posted a sharp growth in the past three months despite the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy.

According to Le Hang, Deputy Director of the VASEP.PRO centre at the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), aquatic exports to the US increased by 36 percent in March against last year’s figure.

The growth was 64 percent in April, with export value reaching 149 million USD.

The strong rises in March and April have helped lift the total export value of the products to the US in the first four months of this year to 483 million USD, up 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

Shrimp remains the biggest currency earner, bringing home 198 million USD from the US in the first four months of this year, up nearly 25 percent year-on-year and accounting for 21 percent of Vietnam's total shrimp export value and 41 percent of the total seafood export value to the US.

Meanwhile, export revenue from Tra (Pangasius) fish was 102 million USD, an increase of 37 percent year-on-year, making up 21 percent of the country’s pangasius export value and 21 percent of the total seafood export value to the US.

Statistics from the US’s National Marine Fisheries Service showed that in the first quarter of this year, the US imported 743,700 tonnes of seafood products, worth 5.6 billion USD, up 7.2 percent in volume and 7.7 percent in value over the same period last year.

Vietnam has become the fifth largest seafood exporter to the US in term of quantity with 62,800 tonnes, a yearly increase of 24.6 percent. In term of value, it ranks sixth with 341 million USD, up 19.1 percent against the previous year.

Vietnam’s share in the US’s total volume of seafood imports rose to 8.5 percent in Q1 from 7.3 percent in the same period in 2020.

According to VASEP, the consumption and imports of aquatic products in the US will increase remarkably in the second half of this year.

It is forecast that seafood imports of the US this year will climb by 6 percent to 2.9 million tonnes in volume and 9 percent to reach 23.3 billion USD in value, even higher than the levels before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, the US will be the target market for seafood exporting countries including Vietnam, India, Ecuador, Indonesia and Thailand./.