In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Vietnam enjoyed a recordrevenue of over 1.2 billion USD from China, making fisheries one of the threeagro-forestry-fisheries products with highest export value in the market.
However, the figure fell to under 1 billion USD in 2021 dueto impacts of the pandemic.
But since the beginning of this year, fisheries exports toChina have recovered. Statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customsshowed that in the first 10 months of this year, those to Chinaexceeded 1.3 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 82%, marking a new record.
Explaining the situation, experts held that the “Zero COVID”policy of China has greatly affected the country’s fisheries sector, while thedemand for the product is high.
According to the Import-Export Department under the Ministryof Industry and Trade, China imported 13.5 billion USD worth of aquaticproducts in the first nine months of this year, a rise of about 40% year onyear.
The department forecast that the increase is likely tocontinue in the remaining months of this year.
Shrimp is one of the aquatic products with strongest growthso far this year. In the first eight months of this year, China spent 3.77billion USD to import this product, a rise of 66.3%. The spending in Augustalone is 680 million USD, a record level for a month.
China’s spending on Vietnamese shrimp in the January-Augustperiod reached 198 million USD, a surge of 98.5% year on year.
Dr. Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of Fimexvn, said that in reality Chinais the largest shrimp importer in the world. However, the country also has astrong domestic shrimp industry, he said, advising Vietnamese businesses to makeclearer assessments on this giant market./.