Vietnam becomes Australia’s biggest shrimp supplier

Vietnam exported shrimp worth US$88.7 million to Australia in the first half of 2021 - PHOTO: DNCC

Vietnam accounted for 62% of Australia’s total shrimp imports, followed by Thailand with 16%, China, Malaysia and Brunei. Australia is also the market that recorded the best growth among the main importers of Vietnam's shrimp, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).

Shrimp products exported to the Australian market in the first half of this year were quite diverse, including fresh and frozen whiteleg shrimps, fresh and frozen black tiger shrimps, slipper lobster meat and whole slipper lobsters. Vietnam also exported dried shrimp products to Australia.

Australia is considered as the market with the most potential for Vietnamese shrimp among the member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. VASEP said the incentives of this agreement, which took effect in Vietnam on January 14, 2019, have facilitated Vietnam’s exports of shrimp to Australia.

Although the average price of shrimp imported from Vietnam is US$1-2 per kilogram higher than that of rival countries, Vietnamese shrimp is still preferred in Australia.

While Australia’s shrimp imports from Vietnam in the first five months of 2021 surged 93% compared with the same period last year, the country’s shrimp imports from China and Thailand fell 31% and 4%, respectively.

VASEP general secretary Truong Dinh Hoe said Vietnam’s shrimp exports to Australia were negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. However, many importers, suppliers and retail distribution channels in Australia have adapted to the pandemic since the end of 2020 and the first half of this year, helping Vietnam’s shrimp exports to Australia rebound strongly.

Hoe said if Vietnam is able to accelerate Covid-19 vaccination and bring the pandemic under control soon, shrimp exports to Australia can grow even stronger in the last months of this year.

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