The Vietnam Aquatic Products Processing and Export Association expects that exports of aquatic products may continue to decline in the future. However, things have turned around and Vietnamese aquatic products have been allowed to enter the Chinese market.
Due to its unique geographical location, Vietnam has become the world's fourth largest exporter of aquatic products, with more than 170 aquatic product export countries every year. Among the countries where Vietnam exports, China is one of the four major export markets for Vietnam's aquatic products, accounting for about 55. % of Vietnam's total aquatic products exports together with Japan, the United States and South Korea.
As a neighbor of Vietnam, China is the world's largest consumer of aquatic products, statistics show that in 2019, China's aquatic product imports reached 6.265 million tons, an increase of 19.9% year-on-year, in recent years, Vietnam also regards China as a target market.
According to Vietnamese media reports, in the first two months of 2020, due to the closure of part of Vietnam's borders, in the case of transportation and storage, Vietnam's most potential aquatic products - basa fish exports to China fell by 50%, the Vietnam Aquatic Products Processing and Export Association expects that the export of aquatic products may continue to decline in the future. However, things have turned around and Vietnamese aquatic products have been allowed to enter the Chinese market.
On May 15, according to Vietnamese media reports, Chinese customs has now approved the inclusion of Vietnamese shallow shrimp in the list of imported aquatic products from China. According to local statistics from Vietnamese authorities, Yuntun County in Vietnam is the largest breeding area for shallow shrimp in the province, of which about 90% of the output of shallow shrimp is exported to China, and the remaining 10% is sold in Vietnam.
It is understood that the county's annual production of shallow snails reaches 10,000-12,000 tons. Previously, due to the impact of the epidemic, Vietnam's shallow shrimp farming industry has been greatly impacted, and the local government has actively sought new solutions to cope with the difficulties faced by exporting to China's market.
According to Vietnamese data, Vietnam's total aquatic product exports to China in 2019 reached 1.1 billion US dollars, which is a new breakthrough after 2017. In 2020, Vietnam has also set a target of more than US$10 billion (about 71.04 billion yuan) of annual aquatic products exports to China.
Read: Vietnam's Efforts to Lift Yellow Card Warning for Fisheries
According to the Vietnam News Agency, the European Commission's Supervisory Mission of the Admiralty and Fisheries Administration (DG-MARE) will travel to Vietnam from May 25 to June 5 to check the overcoming of the European Commission's yellow card warning for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
Nguyen Quang Hung, deputy director of the General Fisheries Bureau of Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that after the European Commission issued a yellow card warning for Vietnam's fisheries, Vietnam has made continuous efforts to improve. After two inspections, the EC Delegation gave a positive assessment of The efforts made by Viet Nam, but they believed that there were still deficiencies in the development of fisheries in Viet Nam, the most prominent of which was the installation of vessel position monitoring equipment.
Therefore, the relevant departments and industries in Vietnam and the provinces have made unremitting efforts to lift the yellow card warning of the European Commission. The installation rate of monitoring equipment for fishing vessels with a length of more than 15 meters in Cam Ou Province reached 72% (of which the installation rate of monitoring equipment for fishing vessels with a length of more than 24 meters reached 86.5%); the installation rate of fishing vessel position monitoring equipment with a length of more than 24 meters in Penang Province reached 96.58%, and the installation rate of fishing vessel position monitoring equipment for fishing vessels with a length of 15 meters to 24 meters reached 50.75%.
The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the European Commission inspection team expected to go to Viet Nam in early June this year to check the overcoming of the yellow card warning for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing for the third time. If Vietnam cannot overcome the problems raised by the European Commission after its previous inspection, the European Commission is likely to issue a "red card warning" to Vietnam, at which time the door of Vietnam's aquatic exports to the EU will become narrower and narrower, or even closed completely.