Seafood exports in 2024 are expected to earn 10 billion USD, an increase of 13% compared to 2023. Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam - Deputy General Secretary of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) - said that in 2024, seafood exports will come from two highlights, which are products from aquaculture and products from exploitation.
From the beginning of 2024, businesses and localities have focused on opening markets, in which, VASEP has coordinated with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Industry and Trade to open key markets such as the US, Europe, etc. This has significantly impacted export market shares. Among them, dominant products are shrimp with an export value of 4 billion USD, an increase of nearly 17% compared to 2023.
Other products such as pangasius and tuna also recorded positive growth. Accordingly, pangasius exports reached 1.84 billion USD in the first 11 months of the year and are forecast to reach 2 billion USD by the end of 2024. Tuna, although growing slowly, still increased by 8% compared to November 2023 and could reach 1 billion USD as the record in 2022. In addition, tuna exports have also made good use of quota of 11,500 tons/year from European market.
In addition, some products such as crabs, shellfish and octopus also recorded high growth, of which shellfish achieved an impressive growth rate of up to 180%.
Not only main products, Vietnam's seafood exports also strongly develop by-products such as fishmeal. Fishmeal exports reached 220.4 million USD in the first 10 months of the year and are forecast to reach 264.6 million USD for the whole year, with Chinese market accounting for nearly 90% of fishmeal export turnover.
In terms of markets, China and Hong Kong (China) have taken the lead in Vietnam's seafood import markets, with a growth rate of 61% in November, bringing total cumulative turnover to more than 1.7 billion USD, up 19% over the same period last year.
The US market also recorded positive growth of 21% in November, reaching 1.67 billion USD after 11 months and is forecast to continue to be positive in the last month of the year before the US government can apply new tariffs. Although Japanese, EU and Korean markets did not have a major breakthrough in November 2024, they still contributed significantly to total seafood export turnover.
However, seafood industry is still facing trade barriers. Recently, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) launched an anti-subsidy investigation on frozen warm-water shrimp with Vietnam and businesses are also waiting for the results of the DOC. However, Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam said that it is because global competition will be the driving force for businesses to change their perceptions and implement new regulations of the markets.
Based on success of 2024, experts said that prospect of seafood exports in 2025 is very positive. "With the initiative of businesses, companionship with localities and the state, the market will be opened, barriers will be removed together...more suitable, more effective, opportunities from market, seafood exports are forecast to reach over 10 billion USD in 2025, growing from 10 - 15% compared to 2024" - Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam said. Of course, seafood exports still face difficult problems. For example, related to field of marine exploitation, currently, local authorities and sectors are focusing on implementing regulations on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), businesses are the final stage of purchasing goods for export to the EU market but the ability to access full information is still inadequate. Similarly, tuna industry a few years ago was only around 600 - 700 million USD but this year it is approaching 1 billion USD. But current bottleneck of this industry lies in Decree 37/2024/ND-CP, which stipulates that skipjack tuna must be 0.5m or larger to be exploited.
This regulation aims to protect tuna resources and avoid exploiting fish that are too small. However, fish larger than 0.5m only account for a very small proportion in a net. When they are not of the required size, businesses will not buy them and fishermen will not be able to sell them. Countries with tuna fishing only regulate fishing seasons, not sizes. Therefore, VASEP really wants to amend the regulations in this Decree to motivate fishermen to stay at sea to exploit and increase output.
Next, with shrimp and pangasius products, they are currently facing fierce competition from markets such as Ecuador, India, Indonesia, etc. These two products alone have brought in billions of USD for Vietnam. Whether or not Vietnam can maintain its position in the market depends on raw materials. So how can fish and shrimp farmers access capital to maintain production; get good quality breeds to help reduce costs?
Mr. Nguyen Hoai Nam suggested that he hopes to have support from credit, aquaculture plan, promoting seed production... to help farmers and fishermen have the motivation to maintain production, making a very important contribution to providing raw materials for Vietnam's seafood exports.

Source: Vitic/ congthuong.vn