Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam’s seafood exports will continue to see reductions innext few months due to the pandemic, with a slight year-on-year decrease of 5percent to 2 billion USD in the second quarter, according to the VietnamAssociation Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

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

The seafood export in the second quarter would not be able to recover becausesome major export markets for local seafood products are still stronglyaffected by the pandemic, especially the EU and US markets. The seafood exportsto China also would not be able to recover.

The shipments are expected to see positive growth in the third and fourthquarters, according to the association.

Vietnam’s seafood export value in the first four months of this year fell 10percent year-on-year to 2.18 billion USD, according to the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development.

The ministry’s Department of Farm Produce Processing and Market Developmentreported that both tra fish andshrimp, Vietnam’s two major export seafood products, had strong declines ofabout 32 percent to 420 million USD and 12 percent to 748 million USD,respectively.

Japan, the US, EU and mainlandChina were the major export markets for Vietnamese export seafood products,making up almost 58 percent of total export value.

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

Meanwhile, the nation saw thehighest seafood export value growth at about 22 percent to Russia in the firstquarter.

The department also said Vietnamspent 545 million USD to import seafood material in the first four months,about 3 percent 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 marketin the Mekong Delta have decreased due to reduction of export orders amid theCOVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, China, the largest export market for Vietnamesepangasius products, has not yet recovered.

In January-April period, thenation’s total seafood production reached nearly 2.2 million tonnes, up 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year, including one million tonnesfrom aquaculture.
The nation is estimated to gain a total seafood export value of about 8.3 billion USD this year, down 3.8 percent compared to 2019./.