AsemconnectVietnam - South Korea reduce imports of frozen surimi from Vietnam.Export of cephalopods to Japan show some positive signal.Tuna exports to the US have not shown any signs of improvement. Ca Mau has a great demand for shrimp seed sources.

South Korea reduce imports of frozen surimi from Vietnam
According to statistics of Korea Customs, Korea's import of frozen fish cakes/surimi in March 2023 reached nearly 9 thousand tons, down 35% compared to the same period in 2022. In the first quarter of 2023, the import turnover of this product group reached nearly 34 thousand tons, a decrease of 4%.
The average CIF price of this product group into Korea fluctuated at 1.81 USD/kg.
China and Vietnam are the two largest suppliers in this market segment for Korea in the first quarter of 2023. After growing in the first two months of 2023, exports from China plummeted by 50% in March. Vietnam's exports also fell by 10% in March.
Although Vietnamese enterprises have lowered their prices, this was still unable to boost exports of this product group. The average CIF export price of fishcake and surimi of Vietnam in the first 3 months of 2023 fluctuated at 1.86 USD/kg, down 4% compared to the same period in 2022. Compared to other suppliers, Vietnam has the second lowest price after China.
Export of cephalopods to Japan show some positive signal
Although negative growth is inevitable in the general decline trend of Vietnam's seafood exports, the export value of cephalopods recorded a slighter decrease compared to other key export seafood products.
The impact of inflation and the global economic recession caused the import demand of cephalopods from major consuming markets around the world to fall.
Cephalopods exporters continue to face many difficulties in terms of raw materials and high input costs. The Russia-Ukraine conflict disturbs global trade, and the high price of gasoline makes the cost of fishing trips difficult for fishermen. In addition, the IUU yellow card that has not been removed is still a challenge for cephalopods exports.
In the structure of exported cephalopod products, squid accounted for 54.4%, octopus accounted for 45.6%. In the first quarter of 2023, the value of squid exports decreased by 12%, octopus exports decreased by 11% compared to the same period in 2022.
Tuna exports to the US have not shown any signs of improvement
After a continuous decline in the fourth quarter of 2022, Vietnam's tuna exports to the US in the first three months of 2023 continued to fall deeply. Tuna export turnover to this market in this period decreased by 53%, reaching 64 million USD.
Currently, Vietnam's tuna exports to the US have all decreased over the same period, except for frozen steamed tuna (HS16 code) which increased by 20%. Compared to the same period last year, the average export price of this group of products fell by 20%.
High inventories, high inflation in the US have affected consumer consumption in the first period of 2023.
Ca Mau has a great demand for shrimp seed sources
Ca Mau province has a vision by 2030 to develop an area of about 250,810 hectares for black tiger shrimp farming, and 9,190 hectares for whiteleg shrimp farming.
Ca Mau province has a vision by 2030 to develop an area of about 250,810 hectares for black tiger shrimp farming, and 9,190 hectares for vannamei shrimp farming. The output of both types of farming reached over 328,000 tons/year. To meet these goals, the demand for quality shrimp seed for production is very large. Specifically, there are about 27.8 billion fingerlings of black tiger shrimp and about 23.5 billion whiteleg shrimp.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ca Mau province, the locality has an annual aquaculture area of about 300,000 ha; in which over 280,000 ha is the shrimp farming area. The demand for seed in Ca Mau reached nearly 42 billion seeds in 2022 to meet all types of farming such as: intensive farming, super intensive farming, improved extensive farming, extensive farming, shrimp - rice, shrimp - forest.
Seafood sector feeling the bite amid high inflation
Seafood businesses saw a plunge in their first quarter (Q1) business results amid weakening global demand, after reaching a peak in Q2 of last year.
Statistics from the five major listed seafood firms, Vinh Hoan Corporation (VHC), Nam Viet JSC (ANV), International Development and Investment JSC (IDI), Minh Phu Seafood Corporation (MPC), and Sao Ta Foods JSC (FMC), show that in the first quarter of this year these firms saw 23.4 percent drop in revenue, and an 80.4 percent plunge in profit, on average compared to Q1/2022.
T.Huong
Source: Vitic/Vasep