Vietnam produced 5.96 million metric tons (MT) of seafood in the first nine months of this year, up 5.4 percent from last year, with shrimp and pangasius being major contributors, the General Department of Fisheries under the Agriculture Ministry said on 9 October.
Of that total, the output from aquaculture in the period was estimated at 3.11 million MT, while wild-catch fisheries contributed an estimated 2.85 million MT. The general department did not provide a year-on-year breakdown.
The production in September was estimated at 733,500 MT, comprising 328,500 MT from aquaculture and 251,000 MT from wild-catch fisheries.
Vietnam’s farmed shrimp output between 1 January to 24 September was 504,413 MT, rising 6.2 percent from the same period last year, comprising 322,828 MT of whiteleg shrimp and 181,585 MT of giant tiger shrimp.
The farming of shrimp this year has been impacted by climate change. The unpredictable weather conditions with prolonged rain and heat have adversely affected shrimp’s health, reducing its ability to resist diseases, the general department said.
The output of pangasius, one of Vietnam’s core farmed species, rose 2.9 percent year-on year to estimated 891,597 MT between 1 January to 21 September. The farming area for pangasius in the country, meanwhile, surged 37 percent to 5,703 hectares. Local farmers were more likely to harvest mostly pangasius of small and medium sizes this year, the general department said in explaining the modest increase in production compared with the rise in farming area. The harvest of pangasius of small and medium sizes was possibly because many customers demanded small and medium sizes and farmers did not want to grow the fish at big sizes to reduce production costs, it said.
In the first nine months of 2019, Vietnam exported seafood worth USD 6.3 billion (EUR 5.7 billion), down 0.8 percent from the same period in 2018, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) on 2 October.
Tuna was the only product of significant volume that saw its export value increase in the period, as it rose 20 percent. The export value of pangasius and cephalopods both fell by 8 percent, and the export value of shrimp declined 7 percent.
Vietnam is expected to earn USD 8.9 billion (EUR 8.1 billion) from seafood exports this year, including USD 3.4 billion (EUR 3.1 billion) from shrimp (down 4 percent year-on-year), USD 2.23 billion (EUR 2 billion) from pangasius (down 3 percent), USD 800 million (EUR 729 million) from tuna (up 23 percent) and USD 626 million (EUR 570.4 million) from squid and octopus (up 23 percent), VASEP said.
Photo courtesy of Toan Dao/SeafoodSource
