Shrimp exports fall as stocks decline

Shrimp exports fall as stocks decline

Shrimp farmers, processors and exporters are struggling to survive as high production costs, a lack of raw material and disease outbreaks take their toll.

According to the Viet Nam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), Viet Nam's shrimp exports to traditional markets like EU and the US have reduced strongly in the first nine months of the year.

Exports to the US market, for instance, reached US$333 million, down by more than 17 per cent over the same period last year.

Nguyen Hoai Nam, VASEP deputy general secretary, said while shrimp prices in other exporting countries have decreased in the past few months, they have risen in Viet Nam, making Vietnamese shrimp less competitive.

Tran Van Linh, general director of the Thuan Phuoc Seafood and Trading Corporation in Da Nang City, said diseases and high input costs have pushed up production costs, hence Vietnamese shrimps were priced higher.

In addition, with the domestic supply shortage, shrimp processing companies were having to import shrimp from other countries, including India and Thailand, to process for export, which also increased production costs, he said.

However, "in the current situation, if we don't reduce prices, Vietnamese shrimp will be unable to compete with these countries," he said, adding that it was not an easy task.

Meanwhile, there has been a slight increase in shrimp prices in the Cuu Long (Mekong) River Delta in recent days, but not many farmers have shrimp to sell since most of them began scaling back production many months ago.

Vo Quang Huy of Soc Trang Province's Tran De District said many shrimp farmers in the district have stopped or scaled back because they'd incurred huge losses to disease outbreaks, and did not have the capital to re-invest.

Huy used to be a large shrimp farmer in the district, with 150 ponds covering 7,000sq.m. However, this year he farmed shrimp in just 10 ponds and left the remaining idle.

Linh said his company used to buy about 50-70 tonnes of shrimp for processing a day, but this has fallen to as low as 5-7 tonnes now.

If farmers are not supported in their efforts to re-invest in shrimp farming, the country's shrimp exports will reduce significantly in the coming months, he said. He also predicted that shrimp export value this year would not reach the $2.4 billion it did last year

vietnamnews