HCM City (VNA) – The price of material shrimps is forecast torecover in August and September after suffering drops over the past months,especially in the second quarter of 2018, according to the Vietnam Associationof Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

The VASEP explained that shrimp crops in major suppliers like India,Bangladesh and Thailand have finished, causing a decline in supply sources,while many Vietnamese firms have received big orders for year-end events.

Experts advised that farmers should not hastily sell their immatureshrimps, but grow big shrimps for better profit as the shrimp price.

At the same time, shrimp growers should use new technology, whilefocusing on fostering cooperation towards value chains to improve productquality and reduce costs.

Meanwhile, businesses should concentrate on developing products withhigher added value and higher quality to penetrate high-end markets.

Vietnam’s shrimp exports started falling from April this year when revenuereached only 257.2 million USD, down 0.4 percent over the same period last year.The sector suffered sharper yea-on-year drop of 5.7 percent in May and even 15percent in June.

The increase in global shrimp supply sources and the decrease in pricesled to a slump in domestic shrimp prices from April. Notably, the price ofwhite-leg shrimp has fallen 20-30 percent and is yet to see signs of recovery.

Many international organisations predicted that shrimp output of majorworld suppliers will recover, with total production to exceed 3.5 milliontonnes in 2018, the highest point in 10 years.

This year, many big shrimp suppliers have also given support policies toboost the sector’s growth, resulting in higher production, while demand hasdecreased.

Tran Van Linh, General Director of Thuan Phuoc seafood and tradingcompany said that the impacts of the increase in USD price compared to othercurrencies such as Euro, Japanese yen and Korean won has also been a challengefor shrimp exports.

Linh expressed fears that if shrimp prices do not increase in the restof the year, exporters will suffer a lack of material sources as farmers reducetheir shrimp farms.

Despite the downturn in shrimp exports in the second quarter, revenue inthe first six months of this year still expanded about 7.6 percent to 1.6billion USD thanks to growth of more than 20 percent in the first quarter.Particularly, exports of white-leg shrimp grew 18 percent with 1 billion USD invalue.-VNA