Vietnam’s seafood exports have grown in value and volume over the course of 2024, indicating a broad recovery is underway after a difficult two-year period.
The value of Vietnam’s seafood exports reached USD 6.3 billion (EUR 5.8 billion) between January and August 2024, up nearly 9 percent year over year, and hit USD 7.2 billion (EUR 6.6 billion) for the first nine months of this year, up 8.5 percent, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP). Vietnam earned USD 866 million (EUR 792 million) from its seafood exports in September alone, up from 811 million (EUR 741 million) in September 2023.
The Southeast Asian country set ambitious earnings goals for its seafood industry in 2024, including USD 9.5 billion (EUR 8.7 billion) from total seafood exports, USD 4 billion (EUR 3.7 billion) from shrimp exports, USD 1.9 billion (EUR 1.7 billion) from pangasius sales, and USD 3.6 billion (EUR 3.3 billion) from other seafood products.
As of September 2024, it is on pace to achieve those goals, according to VASEP. Through September 2024, Vietnam’s shrimp exports have raked in USD 2.8 billion (EUR 2.6 billion), up 10.5 percent year over year, with processed shrimp exports surging 10 percent and frozen shrimp exports growing 4.5 percent.
Pangasius exports have brought in USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.4 billion) through September 2024, up 8 percent, with exports of processed products up 42 percent. Tuna exports, while strong earlier in the year, have slowed since August due to raw material shortages but still increased 16 percent to reach USD 715 million (EUR 654 million) through September, according to VASEP. Vietnam’s crab exports are up 66 percent in 2024, driven by improving Chinese demand.
Vietnam’s seafood industry has struggled through a two-year period of decline in the country’s seafood sales that began in Q4 2022, stemming from subdued global demand and intensified competition from other exporting nations.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which took effect in January 2019, has played a crucial role in boosting trade between Vietnam and key markets in the Americas, according to VASEP. It said Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Peru, have emerged as important trading partners.
Vietnam also received a favorable ruling in September 2024 from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which found its pangasius exporters did not commit any dumping of products into the U.S. market.
VASEP Communication Director Le Hang said her organization is confident about the positive trajectory of the country’s seafood industry.
“The recovery in market demand, combined with rising export prices, is providing momentum for businesses to accelerate exports in the final months of 2024 and into 2025,” Hang said.
Still, Vietnam faces a number of headwinds, including U.S. anti-subsidy and anti-dumping taxes impacting its shrimp sector, which also faces accusations of labor abuse. A yellow card issued by the European Union in 2017, which is still in effect, continues to impact Vietnam’s trade with the bloc, and a government decree issued in May 2024 increasing the minimum legal size of skipjack tuna has resulted in a shortage of raw material, VASEP said.
Still, it said shrimp consumption has begun to increase in Europe and the U.S. and the U.S. is also buying more pangasius.
Vietnam’s top pangasius exporter, Vinh Hoan Seafood, celebrated its largest monthly revenue in the past two years in August 2024, up 31 percent year over year. It said it initiated a competitive pricing strategy to spur consumption that has proved successful. While it is now dealing with thinner profit margins, it said it expects improvement in coming quarters due to lower feed and raw material prices.
However, competitors Nam Viet Joint Stock Company and I.D.I Multinational Joint Stock Company saw their August revenue decrease by 2 percent and 26 percent, respectively, compared to the same period in 2023, due to continued weakness in Chinese purchasing, according to 24H Money.
Vietnam's pangasius exports to the U.S. in August surpassed USD 35 million (EUR 32 million), skyrocketing 40 percent year over year, with year-to-date sales by value raching USD 226 million (EUR 204 million) through August, up 23 percent.
