Historically, Canada has long been an important market for Vietnamese shrimp producers, but new export figures released by the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) find that the trade has been in steep decline over the past two years.
The cumulative figure for the first 10 months of 2016 find that Vietnam’s shrimp exports to the Canadian market amounted to USD 100.4 million (EUR 94.3 million), down almost 14 percent year-on-year – this despite a near 3 percent increase in the trade in October. In 2014, Canada imported a high of USD 201.6 million (EUR 189.4 million) worth of Vietnamese shrimp.
Fluctuations are not new to this trade. Indeed, in the five years 2010 to 2015, Vietnam’s shrimp export earnings from Canada ranged from USD 70.8 million (EUR 66.5 million) to the level recorded in 2014.
Canada’s latest import figures are in stark contrast to the United States, which is the largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp and today accounts for more than 20 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s total shrimp exports. The U.S. market imported USD 520.2 million (EUR 488.7 million) worth of shrimp from Vietnam in the first nine months of last year, an increase of more than 15 percent year-on-year, and while final figures for October 2016 are not yet published, VASEP said the trade increased by 12.6 percent in the January through October period.
There has also been a shift in the species preferred by Canadian importers. From 2010-2013, Canada imported much more black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) from Vietnam compared to whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei). In 2013, Vietnam’s shrimp exports to Canada comprised 60 percent black tiger shrimp and 39 percent whiteleg shrimp.
From 2014 onwards, though, exports of whiteleg shrimp have exceeded those of black tiger shrimp. As of October last year, the proportion of whiteleg shrimp and black tiger shrimp sold to the Canadian market was 57 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
Vietnam shrimp exports for 2016 are expected to total USD 3.1 billion (EUR 2.9 billion) up 3.3 percent compared to the previous year.
