In the second half of 2023, which seafood businesses can make a breakthrough?

In the first half of 2023, Vietnam’s seafood industry faced difficulties due to a struggling economy. High inflation led to less seafood consumption, reduced import demand, and increased competition between Vietnam and other seafood exporters. This caused a 27% drop in seafood exports compared to the same period last year.

Market issues such as large inventory, low demand, and falling prices have strongly affected the shrimp and pangasius industries, especially in key markets such as the US and EU.

Therefore, pangasius exports fell the most in the first 6 months, followed by shrimp. The seafood industry continues to face a shortage of raw materials, high input costs, and most importantly, the IUU yellow card is making the procedures for certifying wild- caught seafood products to go to the EU market more difficult  in 2023.

Seafood exports, including to the once-promising Chinese market, have sharply declined. Persistently sluggish post-Covid economies, ongoing wars, and inflation have cast a shadow on recovery, maintaining their hold on food consumption trends, including seafood.

In this difficult situation, many seafood enterprises have adjusted their product structures and strategies. Therefore, although many enterprises experienced a decrease in sales compared to the same period last year, there were still enterprises that achieved positive growth in export turnover in the first half of this year thanks to maintaining labor, utilizing capacity, focusing on value-added goods and processing for export. These enterprises will be the driving force to recover export sales for the industry in the second half of 2023.

Can Vietnam seafood exports reach the expected target of US$10 billion  in 2023? By the end of July, seafood exports had only earned nearly  US$5 billion. Can it break through in the last 5 months of the year?

To gain deeper insights into product structure and export markets, the business situation of seafood enterprises in recent years, assess the resilience of consumption markets, the competitiveness of Vietnam’s seafood products in 2023, opportunities and challenges in the coming time; we extend an invitation to businesses and readers to register for the Q2/2022 Report on Vietnam’s Seafood Exports.

(Source: https://seafood.vasep.com.vn/)

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