Japan, the US, the EU and mainland China were the major export markets for Vietnamese export seafood products in the first quarter of this year. — Photo baodautu.vn

Viet Nam’s seafood exports will continue to see reductions in next few months due to the pandemic, according to the Viet Nam Association Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The seafood processing and exporting enterprises would continue facing difficulties relating to export orders, transport and payment.

The seafood export in the second quarter would not be able to recover because some major export markets for local seafood products are still strongly affected by the pandemic, especially the EU and US markets. The seafood exports to China also would not be able to recover.

VASEP has forecast that seafood exports in the second quarter would decrease slightly by 5 per cent year on year to $2 billion.

The exports are expected to see positive growth in the third and fourth quarters, according to the association.

Viet Nam’s seafood export value in the first four months of this year fell 10 per cent year-on-year to US$2.18 billion, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The ministry’s Department of Farm Produce Processing and Market Development reported that both tra fish and shrimp, Viet Nam’s two major export seafood products, had strong declines of about 32 per cent to $420 million and 12 per cent to $748 million, respectively.

Japan, the US, EU and mainland China were the major export markets for Vietnamese export seafood products, making up almost 58 per cent of total export value.

Of which, the seafood export value had slight growth of 2.2 per cent to $313.3 million for Japan market and 1.2 per cent to $286.8 million for the US market in the first quarter. But those export values to the EU and China fell sharply by over 28.3 per cent to $185.7 million and 27.5 per cent to $145.6 million, respectively.

Meanwhile, the nation saw the highest seafood export value growth at about 22 per cent to Russia in the first quarter.

The department also said Viet Nam spent $545 million to import seafood material in the first four months, about 3 per cent lower than the same period of last year, mainly from India, Norway, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia.

Since the beginning of April, transactions on the domestic raw pangasius market in the Mekong Delta have decreased due to reduction of export orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, China, the largest export market for Vietnamese pangasius products, has not yet recovered.

In January-April period, the nation’s total seafood production reached nearly 2.2 million tonnes, up 0.4 per cent compared to the same period last year, including one million tonnes from aquaculture.

The nation is estimated to gain a total seafood export value of about $8.3 billion this year, down 3.8 per cent compared to 2019. — VNS