While the US reduced their purchases, China sharply increased importation of Vietnamese fish and shrimps in September. That explained why China trailed the US to become the biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood in the last month.
According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam achieved nearly USD 862.0 million from exporting seafood, down 13.7% from August 2022 but up 38.2% from the same period last year. Most of the markets have reported two or three digit growth.
China spent about USD 146.3 million on buying Vietnamese seafood in September, up 117.6% from the same period last year and became the biggest customers of Vietnam this month. Exports to Japan reached USD 142 million, up over 90% from the same period last year.
On the contrary, seafood exports to the US were reduced by 9.6% in September, just reaching USD 142.8% in China.
Till September, Vietnam achieved USD 8.49 billion from seafood exports, up 37.3% from the same period last year.
Even though seafood exports to the US slowed down and reduced in the last few months, in the first nine months of 2022, the US was still the biggest customer that has spent USD 1.77 billion on importing Vietnamese fish and shrimp, up 21.7% from the same period last year.
Japan was the second importer with nearly USD 1.27 billion worth, up 32.8%. China ranked the third position with USD 1.21 billion worth, up 85%.
According to experts, in the last three months of the year, seafood exports will probably remain the growth rate of over 15% as compared to the same period last year as exports to China, Japan, and Korea may compensate for the decreasing exports to the US.
According to Trương Đình Hòe, General Secretary of VASEP expects that China would open the market at the end of the year after the Zero-COVID policy. Exportation will be stable and develop in 2023.
(Source: https://vietfishmagazine.com/)