The European Union has surpassed the U.S. and Japan to become the biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood, consuming 24.4 per cent of the country’s total seafood exports, Vietnam News Agency reported.
In the past eight months, Vietnam shipped 175,400 tons of seafood valued at US$586 million to the EU, up 24.5 per cent and 29.2 per cent on year, respectively.
“With rising volume and value of seafood products, the EU will continue to be the biggest importer of Vietnamese seafood in the future,” predicted Nguyen Viet Manh, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s International Cooperation Department.
Vietnamese seafood has so far been present at 26 out of the EU’s 27 member countries.
245 Vietnamese enterprises are eligible to export seafood to the EU and 25 other are waiting for licenses from the market.
Presently, tra and basa catfish are the most favored products by EU consumers, according to the Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (Vasep).
In the January-August period, the EU imported around 112,000 tons of 'tra' and 'basa' products valued at US$312 million from Vietnam, up 43 per cent on-year in terms of both volume and value.
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Apart from tra and basa catfish products, European countries consume shrimp and molluscs imported from Vietnam.
To meet the strict requirements of the EU market, Vietnamese seafood processors have invested heavily in renewing technologies, while closely monitoring the operation of raw material suppliers.
At present, only 0.1 per cent of Vietnamese seafood is placed under warnings by the EU, ten times less than the one percent in 2005.
This year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is set to rake in seafood export earnings of US$3.6 billion, up US$300 million from that last year. (VNA)
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