Big institutions in the world all have predicted that the seafood demand would be very high in 2012, while the supply would be short. Therefore, Vietnam’s plan to increase the seafood revenue to 6.5 billion dollars from 6 billion in 2011 is within reach.
According to FAO, seafood is the kind of food which has been selling best with 102 billion dollars worth of products consumed in 2008. The organization has predicted that from now to 2015, the seafood consumption per capita around the globe would increase by 0.8 percent per annum, while the total demand for seafood products would increase by 2.1 percent per annum.
Meanwhile, the supply is short to satisfy the market demand. Japan’s fisheries have been threatened after the earthquake and tsunami, Thailand’s and Vietnam’s shrimp have suffered due to floods and epidemics. Meanwhile, catfish industry has suffered from the sharp input cost increases.
According to the Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers VASEP, a lot of the gold stores in Bangkok, Thailand have suffered from the heavy floods, which would only be able to resume their operation after some more time. This would certainly badly affect Thailand’s shrimp export in 2012.
Meanwhile, other shrimp exporters such as China, Indonesia, are also facing difficulties. China is experiencing a cold weather period which badly affects the productivity, Indonesia is facing epidemics. Meanwhile, in the US, EU and Japan, the biggest shrimp consumers, the domestic shrimp supply has been forecast to be low.
As for catfish, in 2011, the floods in Mississippi, one of the four states in the US which breed catfish, have made the cultivation area decrease by 39 percent.
