According to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Vietnam's shrimp exports close 2023 with an export value of 3.4 billion USD, down 22% compared to 2022.
High inflation in main markets causes import demand to decrease. Global shrimp production increased, Ecuador's shrimp production and exports grew explosively, causing oversupply and world shrimp prices to plummet. These are considered the main reasons why shrimp exports will decline in 2023.
In the last months of 2023, the US initiated an anti-subsidy investigation on frozen warm water shrimp, including Vietnamese shrimp. The world economy has bottomed out but recovery is slow, the Russia-Ukraine war still drags on, the Israel-Hamas conflict is ongoing and Red Sea tensions have caused shipping costs to increase.
Compared to Ecuador, cost of farming is low, farming area is large and concentrated and success rate is high up to over 80%. Vietnam's farmed shrimp has a low success rate, low seed quality and production costs are 20 - 35% higher than in Ecuador due to increased food prices, electricity prices and other input costs.
Vietnamese shrimp continues to compete fiercely with Ecuador and India in terms of price and supply. World shrimp prices have not been able to recover quickly due to large inventories. Cost of shrimp feed is large and rising and disease outbreaks in farmed shrimp are not under control. These are the challenges facing Vietnam's shrimp industry in 2024.
Therefore, on journey of overcoming difficulties, the shrimp industry needs to find ways to improve its competitiveness. One of solutions identified is to promote processing of value-added goods and focus more on the farming stage.
Value-added processed shrimp products currently account for 40-45% of total annual shrimp export value. With increasingly developed processing technology and increasing demand from markets, development of value-added shrimp products will be increasingly promoted according to the policies of the Government and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
On January 9, 2024, VASEP Association issued Official Report No.01/BC-VASEP to the Prime Minister on seafood production and export results in 2023 - opportunities, challenges in 2024 and proposed solutions. Consolidate and increase industry competitiveness.
Accordingly, VASEP reported to the Prime Minister about current situation of high food prices, which has a huge impact on farming activities and raw material costs - a main factor making it very difficult for Vietnam's aquaculture products to compete with other countries (Ecuador, India...). VASEP recommends that the Government and Prime Minister have a policy to control food prices to stabilize raw material costs and increase the competitiveness of Vietnamese seafood.
An important key to farmed shrimp is the issue of breed. In order to ensure quality production raw materials and reduce production costs, VASEP recommends that Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development strengthen quality control of farmed shrimp breeds, ensuring there are no poor quality breeds.
Seizing opportunities but with many challenges, the shrimp industry needs cooperation of the Government, local authorities and links throughout the chain. Processing industry must constantly approach consumer and market trends to have new products that respond in the most timely manner.
Farming industry needs to be more fundamental and organize production on a larger scale to have a scientific and reasonable overall planning foundation for farming areas as well as facilitate investment in equipping scientific and technical achievements to enhance proactiveness, reduce risks and improve productivity.

Source: congthuong.vn