Increase of export to CPTPP member countries is stronger
According to Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), with seafood export turnover increasing from 2.2 billion USD to 2.9 billion USD in 2022 and reaching about 2.4 billion USD in 2023, CPTPP is a market group with the second strongest growth rate, after China. If in 2018, CPTPP market group only accounted for 25% of Vietnam's seafood exports, then by 2023 this number accounted for nearly 27%.
After 5 years of implementing Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP Agreement) taking effect (from January 14, 2019), fisheries gets many positive changes thanks to taking advantage of preferential tariffs in trade with CPTPP countries.
Accordingly, an increase of exports to CPTPP member countries is stronger than other markets, such as Canada, Chile, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia. Market share of Vietnamese seafood in these markets increased, showing that competitive strength has been supported thanks to CPTPP Agreement.
Specifically, in Canada, Vietnam's seafood market share has increased from 7-8% to 10%. Out of which, shrimp product alone increased from 18% to 25% and ranked No. 1; Tuna also increased from 6% to 11% and ranked 3rd. In Australia, Vietnamese shrimp holds an overwhelming market share of 70%, nearly doubling from 32% before signing the agreement.
Besides, there is an increasing trend of importing seafood into Vietnam for processing and export to other countries and for domestic consumption.
Integration is also shown in jointly improving quality and productivity of export processing thanks to investments and cooperation in technology, techniques and application of science and technology in processing and exporting aquaculture product.
Besides achieved results, according to VASEP, context of the past 5 years has had many fluctuations and challenges from market situation, from geopolitical fluctuations and internal shortcomings, partly reducing opportunity to take advantage and more effectively utilize advantages of CPTPP agreement.
Accordingly, from market situation, ability to increase competitiveness cannot be absolute when rival countries such as Ecuador and India have advantages in supply and price and they also have FTAs with some countries which are members of CPTPP.
Besides, in terms of objective factors, there were fluctuations in the world including the Covid epidemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict leading to supply chain disruptions, increased production costs and lack of raw materials leading to a negative scenario. Benefits from CPTPP were not as expected.
From an internal perspective, understanding and effectively taking advantage of tariff incentives by using the appropriate C/O form, there were still shortcomings for businesses when they did not know how to flexibly adjust form for each market to get more benef because there are markets like Japan that have bilateral FTAs, up to 3 multilateral FTAs (ASEAN, RCEP, CPTPP),...
In addition, there is still competition in the domestic market, when seafood products from countries such as Japan, Chile, and Australia also partly lose market share of domestic seafood consumption.
In addition, the need to institutionalize and reform investment environment, positive impacts for import-export businesses, also has regulations that are more stringent than requirements from the agreement or from market. These are regulations related to environment and labor, which are issues that Vietnam needs to improve towards sustainable development but there needs to be a roadmap suitable to the country's reality and flexible for each industry because each industry has its own characteristics.
One challenge that reduces competitiveness and the ability to make the most of market opportunities is that logistics for seafood industry does not meet development needs. As a key export-oriented industry with specific food hygiene and safety characteristics, seafood supply chain depends heavily on logistics chain including: cold storage, transportation, especially marine transportation.
Over the past many years, especially in a period from 2020 onwards, there have been many changes such as the Covid epidemic, war, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and recently the Middle East (Red Sea tensions), seafood export industry has exploded. Obvious weakness and inadequacy is that it depends largely on foreign logistics systems: including cold storage and sea transportation.
Current Red Sea tension once again reveals shortcomings of Vietnam's logistics industry, when foreign shipping lines dominate and monopolize price and increase freight rates and transportation service price.
CPTPP expands, adding opportunities for seafood industry
The UK has signed an agreement to join CPTPP Agreement - a milestone suggesting that additional members may join this agreement. These changes also create more opportunities for Vietnamese seafood to penetrate market and integrate by diversifying raw material sources.
Currently, according to bilateral agreement between Vietnam and the UK, preferential import tax of Vietnam's main seafood products into the UK is mostly 0%. However, a few product codes such as processed shrimp HS 160521 and 160529 are still subject to a 7% tax rate. Of course, these two Vietnamese product lines are both occupying the No.1 position in the UK market, dominating 36% of the market share, but the room will be larger when Vietnamese shrimp enjoys preferential tariffs from CPTPP agreement.
In addition, opportunities for diversifying sources of raw materials for export processing within the bloc will increase. In addition, the UK is also a partner for Vietnamese companies in processing seafood products from the UK, such as cod.
In long term, according to VASEP, seafood trade looks forward to a growth of Vietnam's logistics industry with a big goal of developing Vietnam's shipping fleet and reefer container supply system to improve international container transport capacity and then, Vietnam will be proactive and more competitive in supply chain of goods, especially seafood.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn