Seafood exports right from the first months of 2022 continued to record outstanding growth following a spectacular breakthrough in the last months of 2021.

Enterprises have quickly grasped market opportunities and promoted the export of strong aquatic products. The acceleration right from the beginning of the year is expected that seafood exports in 2022 will bring in more than 9 billion USD - a number that has been missed for many years.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, seafood export turnover in the first two months of 2022 reached nearly 1.5 billion USD, up 47.2%; especially pangasius has a strong growth rate of over 83%; shrimp is also over 34%...

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) also said that seafood production and processing has almost returned to normal as before the epidemic. The demand of the markets is very high, businesses receive many orders.

The domestic price of raw materials has also increased, so both farmers, fishermen and businesses are actively producing and are optimistic about a bountiful year.

To soon restore production and business after the COVID-19 epidemic, Hung Ca Co., Ltd. said that the company has 4 frozen seafood processing factories with a processing capacity of 600-1,200 tons of raw fish per day. Currently, the company has a lot of orders, not delivering goods in time to customers.

Even in the first month of the year, shrimp exports grew by 43% over the same period in 2021. Among exported shrimp products, the export value of processed black tiger shrimp increased the most with 157%. The three largest shrimp import markets of Vietnam, the US, Japan and the EU, all recorded good growth.

As for Vietnam's largest shrimp import market, the US, the good growth in this market has helped Vietnam maintain its No. 4 position in the main shrimp suppliers for the US.

According to VASEP, despite the sharp increase in inflation in the US, with the US's economic stabilization policies, shrimp demand is expected to increase strongly this year. Not only shrimp, the US also sharply increased the import of aquatic products from Vietnam such as pangasius, especially tuna, which increased more than 3 times.

The shrimp farming area in the country is currently over 740,000 ha; output reaches over 900,000 tons/year. Particularly, Vietnam's black tiger shrimp production reached over 250,000 tons, ranking first in the world. Although shrimp area only increased by about 1.5%/year, shrimp production increased sharply by 10%/year.

This factor proves the continuous improvement of the farming process, with a much higher yield than before. The prosperous market and good production capacity will help Vietnamese shrimp products continue to affirm their position in other countries.

After three years of low prices, now the price of raw pangasius has reached from 27,000-30,000 VND/kg. Currently, pangasius businesses in the Mekong Delta region are unable to meet orders in time.

Along with that, pangasius production in the chain has reached over 87% and 100% of the farming area is granted a code to help trace the origin, which will be an advantage for pangasius to quickly reach 2 billion USD this year.

According to Ms. To Thi Tuong Lan, Deputy Secretary General of VASEP, currently, the major markets that import Vietnamese pangasius have good growth and high prices. It is forecasted that pangasius exports in 2022 will increase by 20-25% compared to 2021.

Not only shrimp or pangasius, many types of seafood such as squid, octopus, crab, crab... were recorded with double-digit growth.

Ho Quoc Luc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sao Ta Food Joint Stock Company (Fimex VN), said that the market in 2022 in general still depends on the situation of the COVID-19 epidemic. If the epidemic gradually decreases, tourism and service activities increase, consumers go to restaurants and hotels a lot, the demand for this segment increases, along with the retail segment remaining, the consumption will higher.

In order to promote seafood exports, Mr. Le Ba Anh, Deputy Director of the Department of Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Control said that removing and handling market problems is a regular activity of the unit. , especially the Chinese and American markets.

Particularly for the Chinese market with the "Zero COVID" policy, Vietnam still has shipments with warnings related to COVID-19. Therefore, businesses need to pay special attention to the stage of packaging, loading goods onto containers... to ensure in epidemic control.

While market opportunities are opening up, the lack of raw materials at the beginning of the year, sea freight rates have not shown signs of cooling down when the Russia-Ukraine tensions increase, production costs are still high... still are the challenges that businesses face in 2022.

Now, the seafood import markets not only have strict requirements on food safety and quality but also traceability, eco-label... With pangasius, 100% of the area is now available. The farm is granted an identification number of the pond. However, in contrast, the number of shrimp farming areas that have been granted codes is too low.

According to Mr. Tran Dinh Luan, Director of the General Department of Fisheries, localities need to accelerate the issuance of shrimp farming area codes with qualified establishments, not waiting until Decree No. 26/2019/ND-CP dated March 8, 2019 detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Law on Fisheries, which was amended and then "as one." At that time, the issuance of codes will not be done in time to meet the needs of farmers and businesses.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien noted that businesses need to focus on deep processing, increasing added value of the commodity; especially proactively building material areas and chain links in the direction of larger scale and higher quality.

Enterprises associated with farming establishments through product off-take contracts with investment and financial support, and are jointly responsible for supervising and monitoring the production process; closely monitor market developments to respond quickly and be ready to export as soon as the opportunity arises.

Building an electronic traceability system for the export chain - sea processing factories - farming establishments and ponds that have been granted codes for information transparency, Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized.

According to VNA