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Seafood export slumps in first half, but will rebound
Vietnam’s first half seafood exports were hardhit by falling international demand due to the recession and major importers’ bans of basa and tra fish imports because of food safety concerns.
Demand had fallen in recession-hit US, Europe, Japan and other markets in the first seven months of the year.
But analysts expect the sector will bounce back strongly in the last months over growing demand and the lifting of bans.
Seafood shipments declined 8.9 percent to US$2.17 billion in the first seven months this year compared to the same period last year, the General Statistics Office said.
Turnover in every month of the first half was down compared to 2008, except for February’s rise of 18.37 percent year-on-year.
Plunges in export revenue have hit seafood firms hard since export sales account for an average of 65 percent of their total earnings.
Figures from the Ministry of Industry and Trade show there are 15 listed firms out of the country’s 765 seafood exporters, whose export revenue accounts for around 14-15 percent of the nation’s total in the first five months of the year.
Among the 10 biggest exporters by turnover are three listed companies, including Vinh Hoan Corp. (VHC), Nam Viet (ANV) and Minh Phu (MPC).
The Mekong Delta -based Nam Viet took a blow in the first quarter, down VND62 billion or 44 percent year-onyear, contrasting to 2008’s first quarter when it made $78 billion in profit.
The loss was due to Nam Viet’s Russian market temporarily halting imports of Vietnamese tra and basa fish.
Russia stopped importing Vietnamese seafood in December amid concerns about the nation’s food safety and hygiene standards, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on December 29. The ban was lifted later in April.
An Giang Fisheries Import & Export Joint Stock Co. (AGF) also suffered losses in the first quarter as its revenue and profit fell 41 percent and 14 percent year-on-year respectively.
Vinh Hoan Corp. is among a few profit-making seafood exporters, with its export turnover in the first five months reaching $46.4 million. In the first quarter, its revenue rose 27 percent and its profit increased 22 percent.
The company, based in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap, won permission from Russia to export seafood products to that market starting in May, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a statement on its website.
But many stock experts expect seafood exporters would recover strongly in the second half following the lifting of a ban by key importers and recent hikes in international seafood prices.
Vietnam’s tra and basa fish are free of contamination and safe for consumption in the United Arab Emirates market, the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA) said recently after conducting tests on the fish.
The authority’s public relations and communication manager Mohammed Jalal Al Rayaisa said the UAE has removed the ban on imports of the Vietnamese catfish after laboratory tests showed them to be free of any harmful substances and fit for human consumption.
The authority had suspended the selling of Vietnamese fish in the Emirates in March after some Internet reports alleged that the fish were farmed in water treated with Malachite Green, a carcinogenic chemical.
Unfounded allegations that Vietnamese fish contain harmful substances also hurt Vietnam’s exports to Spain earlier this year.
The European country’s food safety watchdog also conducted tests and confirmed that the fish do not contain any substance banned by the European Commission.
thanhnien, tai viet
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