HANOI (Xinhua): Reduced global demand on top of rising prices for aquaculture feeds have thwarted efforts by Vietnamese seafood exporters to sustain recovery momentum, local media reported on Monday (March 27).
Seafood exports in the first two months fell 29 per cent from the same period last year to US$1.1 billion as sales plunged and customs suspended deliveries, Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported, citing customs authorities.
Stubborn inflation has dampened consumption in major markets, said the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), adding that $240 million and $109 million, respectively, in the first two months from the same period of the year before.
Shrimp exports, which normally account for between 40 per cent and 45 per cent of the total annual seafood exports from Vietnam, dropped 40 per cent to $355 million due to higher competition from low-priced products from Ecuador and India.
As farmers, processors and exporters were also worried about steep increases in feed prices depriving them of profits, the VASEP general secretary Truong Dinh Hoe proposed the removal of a two-percent import tariff on dried soybean to support the output of farmed shrimp.
Vietnam's seafood exports last year reached $11 billion for the first time.
