Viet Nam saw a record 30-fold growth in lobster exports to reach a total of US$130 million in the first half of the year, according to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
Viet Nam's lobster exports to China in the first five months of 2022 had a strong increase of nearly 29 times on year to $108 million.
VASEP Secretary General Truong Dinh Hoe said the main market for Vietnamese lobster was still China.
Last year, China's market was "frozen" due to COVID-19, the lobster export value from Viet Nam to this market was very low, so this year, the growth of the lobster export value to China reached a high record but the export value was not such a high figure.
The export value of lobster accounted for only about 5.5 per cent of the shrimp industry's exports and only a few enterprises participated in exporting lobster, Hoe told Nguoi lao dong (The Labourer) newspaper.
Meanwhile, Viet Nam's shrimp exports in the first five months of this year reached $275 million, up 101 per cent over the same period last year. In May, the shrimp exports reached a turnover of $88 million, up 126 per cent on the year.
VASEP said that shrimp supply from China decreased in the past three years due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, China implemented a zero COVID policy, causing many factories in this country to be closed and production to be stalled.
Therefore, China has fallen into a shortage of aquatic products for domestic consumption and export processing.
The increasing demand for seafood imports is attracting more Vietnamese enterprises to export here despite the challenges.
According to VASEP, Viet Nam's total seafood exports to China in the first five months of this year reached US$771 million, up 91 per cent over the same period last year. The two key products were pangasius accounting for 48 per cent of exports and shrimp accounting for 35 per cent.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said it would continue to work closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and related agencies to amend and supplement legal documents on the land border line between Viet Nam and China as well as other legal documents, facilitating sustainable development of border trade activities.
Along with that, the ministry would continue to coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities in developing market and improving product quality and designs.
It would also orient local businesses to promote official export activities to China instead of trade activities via border gates and call on logistics service enterprises to support agricultural, aquatic and fruit enterprises, including priority for the preservation of fruits, and reduction of storage, warehousing, transportation, loading and unloading costs.
In the first half of this year, China was the second largest export market of Vietnamese farm produce with a total value of about $4.97 billion, up 5.9 per cent and accounting for 17.8 per cent of national agricultural, forestry and seafood export value.
In the past months, the ministry regularly cooperated with China authorities to improve the customs clearance of goods at border gates of the two nations. Those facilitated export goods, especially agricultural products exported from Viet Nam during the period of main harvest season. — VNS