Pangasius fish exports to the U.K. rose 48 percent in the first 11 months of last year to $60.15 million.

The increase for the full year could reach 50 percent, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said in a report.

In the first eight months of the year, 90 percent of the U.K.’s pangasius fish imports was from Vietnam, and VASEP forecasts that exports to the U.K., which was among the top five largest markets in the E.U. before the country quit the bloc, could rise by over 10 percent this year.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Covid-19 pandemic has changed consumption habits in Britain, with people spending more on lower-priced products that are convenient and easily preserved and can be cooked at home.

Vietnamese exporters offer reasonable prices, and many of them meet the U.K.’s quality standards, the VASEP report said.

It expects the Vietnam - U.K. Free Trade Agreement (UKVFTA), which came into effect on December 31, 2020, to boost exports in the coming years.

Vietnam’s overall seafood exports fell 1.8 percent last year to $8.4 billion, according to the General Statistics Office.

Workers place fillets of fish to freeze at a factory in Can Tho, southern Vietnam. Photo by Reuters/Kham.

Reference: e.vnexpress.net

Export of pangasius fish to China could rise by 15 percent this year after import tariffs were scrapped in May.

China’s recent easing of its import policy is a great opportunity for Vietnam to export more pangiasus fish to the country, the world’s most populous market, said Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

In late May, China exempted import tariffs on 33 kinds of Vietnamese seafood including lobster, tiger prawn, sea shrimp, frozen basa and pangasius fish.

At the same time, the fact that China is tightening its policy on food safety and border trade will help businesses that trade through official channels as they comply with food hygiene and safety standards more strictly, Hoe said.

Chinese e-commerce websites have stepped up updating information and selling Vietnamese seafood products. The increasing intensity of the US-China trade war also means major Chinese importers are switching from buying US fish to Vietnamese pangasius.

China is also an alternative market for Vietnamese exporters, who face higher tariffs exporting to the U.S.

Over 150 Vietnamese companies export seafood to China at present, 45 of them exporting pangasius fish. Exports of this fish have been growing steadily, increasing by 30-88 percent a year between 2015 to 2018, according to VASEP.

China became Vietnam’s main buyer of pangasius fish for the first time in 2017, after Vietnamese exports to major markets like the U.S. and EU faced a series of obstacles including new anti-dumping taxes, new quality requirements imposed by the U.S. Farm Bill, and bad press coverage in a number of European markets.

In 2018, Vietnam exported $528 million worth of pangasius to China, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year. This year’s value is expected to rise by 10-15 percent, according to the association.

China's recent easing of import policy is a great opportunity for Vietnam to export more pangasius. Photo acquired by VnExpress.

Reference: e.vnexpress.net

In January and February exports to China and Hong Kong were down 32% in volume, and 52% bu value, reaching USD 28.4 million, according to VASEP. The prolong Lunar New Year, combined with the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic caused pangasius export to biggest market of 2019, China, to be stopped. The number of orders that Vietnamese firms got in February and March 2020 were only 30% of 2019’s.

However, since the middle of March, after the disease situation was better controlled, Chinese customers have started to place orders again, goods circulation has begun to restart. Since April 2020, pangasius export to the China-Hong Kong is likely to stabilize gradually.

For the first two months of the year exports to the US reached USD 38.6 million, down nearly 25 percent year on year. Sales to the EU have not been seriously impacted, but export value was only USD26 million, down 40 percent year on year. The average price of pangasius sold to the EU was also down.

In March, Covid-19 has all shut down the German, Italian and UK markets, key buyers of Vietnamese pangasius – all but halting trade. Meanwhile, in early March, an abnormal drought situation happened in the Mekong Delta, seriously affecting raw material pangasius farming area. Farmers in some localities have stopped production to insufficient water and irrigation conditions for the new crop.

Pangasius was the sector hardest hit by Covid-19 in the fisrst two months of 2020

Reference: e.vnexpress.net