Vietnam has transformed itself into a middle-income country, with its gross domestic product growing 8.02 percent in 2022, the fastest annual pace since 1997.
According to a 2021 report from McKinsey Global Institute, 75 percent of Vietnam’s population of approximately 100 million people will spend at least USD 11.00 (EUR 10.20) a day by 2030, up from 40 percent in 2021 and less than 10 percent in 2000. Achieving that spending standard is considered a middle-class lifestyle by the U.K.-based analytical NGO World Data Lab, which recently identified Vietnam as having one of the fastest-growing middle classes in the world.
The number of people with a net worth of at least USD 1 million (EUR 925,000) is forecast to increase 59.2 percent to 114,807 by 2026, and those with at least USD 30 million (EUR 27.7 million) in assets will reach 1,551 by 2026, up from 1,234 in 2021, an annual wealth report released by U.K. property consultancy Knight Frank found.
As a result, demand for premium seafood products is rising, according to Norwegian Seafood Council Southeast Asia Director Asbjørn Warvik Rørtveit. Norway’s sales to Vietnam rose 16.5 percent year-on-year in 2022 to USD 259.8 million (EUR 240.2 million). Rørtveit told SeafoodSource Vietnam bought 55,207 metric tons (MT) of seafood from Norway in 2022, up 8 percent year-on-year, becoming the largest buyer of Norwegian seafood in Southeast Asia.
“Vietnam is a growing market for Norwegian salmon, mackerel, and live red king crab,” Rørtveit said. “It is very exciting to follow the development, and we have high expectations for growth, going forward.”
Rørtveit said of particular interest to NSC and the global seafood industry is the fact that Vietnam has one of the highest per capita rates of seafood consumption in in the world at 37 kilograms, with 86 percent of the population eating fish or other seafood products at least once a week.
Vietnam is already known as a seafood powerhouse, with its shrimp, pangasius, and tuna sales adding up to USD 11 billion (EUR 10.1 billion) in exports in 2022, ranking behind only China and Norway. But quietly, it has become a top-10 global seafood importer, hitting USD 2.7 billion (EUR 2.5 billion) in 2022, a 36.6 percent year-on-year increase. While a majority of its seafood imports are raw material for local processing plants that are then reexported, a growing volume of imported seafood is high-value, high-quality product being consumed domestically, with a growing quantity from the U.S., Canada, Norway, and Ireland.
U.S. seafood exports to Vietnam rose 11.4 percent in 2022 to USD 76.1 million (EUR 70.4 million). In March 2023, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute (ASMI) led a delegation of 14 Alaska seafood companies to Vietnam on a promotional tour.
Gratia Dei Seafoods President Lawrence D. Bushnell, who participated in the trip, said Vietnam is poised to become a major destination market for U.S. seafood, following their previous success with the Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and South Korean markets, Tuoi tre News reported.
“We want to access the [Vietnamese] market and provide information about the catching and preservation of U.S. seafood to more Vietnamese consumers,” Bshnell said.
Alaska’s seafood exports, mostly fresh and processed products, to Vietnam hit USD 27 million (EUR 25 million) in 2022, up from just USD 9 million (EUR 8.3 million) in 2018.
ASMI believes Alaska salmon, cod, and pollock will gain in popularity in coming years in Vietnam. North American lobster is also acquiring a following in Vietnam, even though it faces a 10 percent tariff, according to VietnamNet.
On the back of that popularity, Canada’s seafood sales to Vietnam soared USD 57.5 million (EUR 53.2 million) in 2022, up 60.5 percent. Vietnam has become the number-one importer of Canadian seafood in Southeast Asia, Steve Craig, the minister of the department of fisheries and aquaculture of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, said at a business networking event in February 2023, according to VnExpress.
Tran Van Truong, the CEO of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based seafood importer Royal Seafood, said Canadian seafood has become known for stable prices that are lower than similar products from other countries. On Royal Seafood’s website, lobster from Canada was priced at VND 1.44 million (USD 61.20, EUR 56.60) per kilogram in late March 2023 – which was 39.7 percent less than the VND 2.39 million (USD 101.70, EUR 94.00) it was charging for lobster from South Australia.
Between 50 and 60 Vietnamese companies directly import seafood products from Canada to serve the domestic market – a figure that has increased in recent years, Truong said.
Ireland is also seeing an increase in its seafood sales to Vietnam, with the value of its Vietnamese exports growing 150 percent between 2017 and 2021. Ireland exports brown crab, oyster, langoustine, mussels, sea shrimp, scallops, and bulot snail (Irish snails), to more than 70 countries and territories, earning around EUR 600 million (USD 648.6 million) a year. Sales of Irish seafood products to Vietnam grew 14.6 percent to USD 6.5 million (EUR 6 million) in 2022.
At the Irish Seafood and Pork Showcase, hosted at Ireland’s embassy in Vietnam in February 2022, and jointly organized by trade Ireland’s development and promotion agency Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, and the Irish Embassy in February 2022, Irish Minister of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine Martin Heydon said Vietnam is regarded as an important market under Ireland's 10-year strategy for safe food development – the "Food Vision 2030," according to Vietnam News Agency.
"We wish to bring high-quality food that is produced in strict compliance with regulations on sustainable production to Vietnamese consumers,” he said. “Hopefully, fresh Irish pork and seafood will be more present on Vietnamese tables.”
Photo courtesy of David Bokuchava/Shutterstock
