Crab exporters in Vietnam shipped USD 75.8 million (EUR 67.8 million) worth of products in the first eight months of this year, an increase of 7.2 percent year-on-year, thanks largely to boosts in the Southeast Asian country’s exports to China, Japan and the EU. However, over the same period, there was a steep decline in its trade with its No.1 market – the United States.
The U.S. market imported USD 30.2 million (EUR 27 million) worth of Vietnamese crab in the January-August period, down 12.5 percent year-on-year. Nevertheless, it still accounted for 39.8 percent of the crab trade’s total export value, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters & Producers (VASEP).
Exports to China and Japan in the same period amounted to USD 8.7 million (EUR 7.8 million) and USD 15.2 million (EUR 13.6 million), respectively. These totals represented year-on-year increases of 132.3 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively.
Trade with the EU also increased – by 4.5 percent year-on-year to USD 13.1 million (EUR 11.7 million) – but this was not enough to see it lose its position as Vietnam’s second most important crab market to Japan. Within the bloc, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium are the main importing markets of Vietnamese crab.
