Seafood exporters meet with difficulties, again

Vietnamese enterprises exported only $1.6 billion worth of seafood products in the first half of the year and they find it difficult to fulfill plans to reap $4.5 billion in export revenue in 2010.

According to Truong Dinh Hoe, Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, the shortage of seafood materials for processing has created big difficulties for exporters.The sharp euro depreciation against the dollar has also affected exporters to the EU.

Tra fish suffers the most. The tra fish export price to the EU has not increased, while exports to the market have dropped.

Regarding the Russian market, according to Duong Ngoc Minh, head of the committee on regulating exports to Russia, in the first six months, export turnovers reached $27 million, a two-fold increase over 2009.

Still, companies face other export obstacles in Russia. They are not accepting price increases and their importers require a reduction of the ice layer from 20 percent to 10 percent.

“With an ice layer of 20 percent, the average export price is $1.65 per kilo. If the ice layer is reduced to 10 percent, we need to sell at $2.05 per kilo to make a profit. However, Russian importers will not accept the new price,” one firm’s director complained.

Meanwhile, the export markets for tuna have narrowed. Many enterprises have halted exports to Japan due to their overly high tariff. Thai tuna exports can enjoy a preferential tariff of 3.2 percent – one that will drop further to 1.6 percent as of April 2011 and to zero as of April 2012. Similarly, tariffs for Filipino exporters are 3.6, 2.4 and zero percent as of April 2013. Vietnam must still pay an import tariff of 7.2 percent, 40 percent higher than these countries.

Hoe explained that Vietnam’s seafood export has been relying by 70 percent on farmed materials, so the material shortage and price increases have hit them hard.

“The feed price needs to be stabilized,” Hoe suggested. “This will help farmers calculate production costs exactly, while exporters can figure out input material prices accurately.”

At a recent workshop hled at Vietfish Trade Fair 2010, held in HCM by Bureau Veritas Vietnam, participants agreed that all countries in the world are setting up more and more technical barriers and apply stricter food hygiene standards. Do Thanh Muon from Bureau Veritas Vietnam noted that, in aquaculture, Global GAP standards are always required by the EU. From 2009, European supermarkets have required suppliers to show their Global GAP certificate.

Muon observed that obtaining certification allows Vietnamese exporters to overcome other trade barriers.

Regarding tuna export to Japan, VASEP requested that the Ministry of Industry and Trade put the issue on the agenda of negotiations between Vietnam and Japan.

VASEP has also proposed that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development remove requirements for compulsory quarantine of frozen import seafood preserved below -18oC. Companies claim that, when products are preserved at this temperature, they will not be able to cause epidemics.

Tags: Vietnam Seafood, Vietnam seafood exports