The United States imported USD 520.2 million (EUR 485.7 million) worth of shrimp from Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, an increase of more than 15 percent year-on-year, reaffirming its position as the No.1 end market for the product.
According to new figures from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), U.S. imports of Vietnamese shrimp in the third-quarter of this year amounted to USD 221.3 million (EUR 206.6 million), up 51 percent compared to Q2 2016, and 17.2 percent higher than in Q3 2015.
The United States is the largest importer of Vietnamese shrimp, accounting for 23 percent of the Southeast Asian country’s total shrimp exports in the first nine months of this year. In particular, the U.S. market favors its whiteleg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), with the farmed species representing 75 percent of the trade, followed by farmed black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) with 22 percent and marine shrimp with 3 percent.
With a value of USD 252.7 million (EUR 236 million), exports of processed vannamei were almost twice that of live/fresh/frozen vannamei during the nine-month period, while exports of live/fresh/frozen black tigers at USD 87.7 million (EUR 81.9 million) were more than three times greater than processed formats of the species.
In terms of global exports, Vietnam’s shrimp trade for January through September 2016 totaled USD 2.2 billion (EUR 2.1 billion), an increase of 5.6 percent year-on-year, thanks to the higher demand from the United States and also from its No. 2 market, the EU. Trade has been further buoyed by the rising global shrimp prices, which have been caused by the general supply shortage.
Vietnam’s exports to the EU reached USD 431 million (EUR 402.6 million) in the first nine months of this year, up 6.9 percent year-on-year.
VASEP anticipates the value of Vietnam’s shrimp exports will continue to rise and achieve total sales of USD 3.1 billion (EUR 2.9 billion) for this year as a whole, up 3.3 percent compared to last year.
