The Chinese market is increasingly important for Vietnam’s seafood exports. In recent years, this market has always been in the top 3 largest importers, just behind the US and Japan.

    In 2022, Vietnam’s seafood exports to China reached record sales and growth, reaching 1.6 billion USD and 66% respectively. However, due to falling prices and high inventories, the turnover in the first 9 months of this year decreased by 18%, reaching only 1 billion USD.

    However, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) recently stated that 2023 and the coming years have a number of favorable factors, bringing opportunities and room to penetrate deeper into this market.

    First, demand for seafood in China is recovering as the economy shows positive signs. Vietnam has a favorable geographical location, helping to reduce logistics costs and is less than other countries, so it is an opportunity to compete for seafood while this country also seeks new sources of supply to replace imports from Japan.

    Second, the country is also shifting investment to more profitable industries, so aquaculture is declining. Therefore, China will increasingly depend on imported seafood like Western countries. Geopolitical fluctuations, inflation, and energy crises have reduced consumption demand in the US, EU, and Japan, but China’s has increased.

Fresh live octopus caught in Phan Thiet brought ashore for sale. Photo: Viet Quoc

    China is one of the world’s largest seafood importers, spending $14.14 billion on overseas seafood last year, up 14.7% from 2021, according to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

    Data from the China Customs Administration showed that seafood imports in the first eight months of 2023 increased by 9.4% year-on-year to $12.8 billion. Of which, Vietnam is the seventh largest seafood supplier. VASEP said that this year, Vietnam’s main products sold here decreased, such as pangasius, lobster, squid, and crab, but many species still increased sharply, such as white-leg shrimp, tiger prawns, shrimp, hairtail, yellowstripe scad, mackerel, scad, scad, glass-eyed fish, octopus, and clams.

    According to VASEP, many Vietnamese enterprises have identified the Chinese market as a potential destination. Many localities such as Guangdong, Zhanjiang, Guangxi, Fujian, and Shanghai are large consumer markets.

    To make the most of the opportunity, the association believes that there needs to be more information and demand exchange at the local level. In particular, there needs to be policy changes such as expanding the list of seafood products that can be exported, opening up more to fresh seafood species such as lobsters and crabs. In addition, there needs to be further development of logistics infrastructure from road and rail connections and cooperation in building cold storage facilities.

Source: VASE