In July of 2019 alone, it reached 793 million USD, up by 9.8 per cent compared to June  of 2019 and by 3.6 per cent compared to July of 2018. Japan, the USA, EU, China, and Korea were the major seafood export markets of Vietnam. The exports to Japan reached 811.07 million USD, accounting for 17.3 per cent of the country's total seafood export turnover, up by 10.4 per cent over the same period of 2018; the exports to the US reached 802.59 million USD, up by 1.2 per cent, accounting for 17.1 per cent; to the

EU market reached 723.39 million USD, accounting for 15.4 per cent, down by 11.4 per cent; to China reached 592.7 million 440.86 million USD, accounting for 9.4 per cent, down by 3.9 per cent; to Southeast Asia accounting for 7.8 per cent of the country's total seafood export turnover, reaching 364.13 million USD, down by 0.6 per cent over the same period of 2018.

Although the country's overall seafood export turnover in the first 7 months of this year declined, there were still some markets with a sharp increase in turnover over the same period last year. Concretely, the exports to Iraq increased by 49.7 per cent to 8.16 million USD; to Ukraine - increased by 47 per cent to 13.15 million USD; to Cambodia - increased by 41.8 per cent, reaching 19.93 million USD; to Brunei – increased by 35.6 per cent, reaching 1.18 million USD.

However, the exports of seafood to Saudi Arabia dropped sharply by 98.8 per cent over the same period last year, reaching only 0.17 million USD. Besides, the exports to some markets also dropped sharply such as: to Pakistan - decreased by 69.6 per cent, reaching 3.99 million USD; Czech - decreased by 32.7 per cent, reaching 2.49 million USD; to Israel - decreased by 32.2 per cent, reaching 42.51 million USD; to the Netherlands - decreased by 31.3 per cent to 127.14 million USD.

In the first 7 months of 2019, pangasius exports reached 1.13 billion USD, down by 5.5 per cent over the same period of 2018; shrimp exports reached 1.8 billion USD, down by 8 per cent; in which, the export of while-leg shrimp accounted for 68.2 per cent, tiger shrimp accounted for 21.6 per cent and the rest was marine shrimp. White-leg shrimp exports reached 1.2 billion USD, down by 7 per cent; while the exports of tiger shrimp reached nearly 383.7 million USD, down by 15 per cent; other marine shrimp reached 181 million USD, up by 5 per cent; processed black tiger shrimp saw the strongest drop of 34 per cent, and canned sea shrimp increased the most by 57 per cent.

The exports of shrimp to China in the first 7 months of this year reached over 285 million USD, up by 1.7 per cent over the same period last year; while the exports to the EU reached 377.5 million USD, down by 21.3 per cent. Shrimp exports to the EU were mainly processed shrimp with few competitors, mainly Thailand and Indonesia. Processed shrimp has a high tax rate without GSP (from 10-20 per cent), so it will be difficult for Vietnamese competitors to compete on price.

Shrimp exports to Japan reached nearly 329 million USD, down by 2.8 per cent compared to the same period of 2018, while the exports to the US reached 327.4 million USD, up by 5 per cent.