Vietnam spending US$140 million a month on seafood imports

Despite being a major seafood producer, Vietnam has bought in many kinds of seafood from foreign markets to process for export and domestic consumption in recent years.

Vietnam imported more than US$163 million worth of seafood products in May, up 29% compared to April and 60% higher than the same period last year, bringing the total import value for the first five months of 2018 to nearly US$698 million, a year-on-year rise of 33%.

India, Norway, Taiwan, China and Japan were major suppliers of shrimp and fish to Vietnam. It is noteworthy that seafood imports from India rose 15% in the first five months of the year to reach US$152 million, making up 22% of the country’s total imports.

Imports from two other markets also soared, with Norway up 72% to US$72 million and Taiwan up 41% to US$47 million. Only China saw a decline of 9% to just US$44 million.

Vietnam mainly imported sugpo prawn from India as domestic production cannot meet the demands of export businesses. In addition, the country bought sugpo prawn, tuna, and cuttlefish from Taiwan; salmon from Norway; mackerel, salmon, and cod from Japan; and shrimp, crab and seaweed from Indonesia.

The general picture shows that most import markets saw growth in the first five months of the year, particularly Indonesia (up 78%), Malaysia (83%), Poland (74%), Canada (78%) and the Republic of Korea (72%).