Japan, the US, China and South Korea are the 4 largest import markets of Vietnamese seafood, accounting for 53.7% of the total seafood export value. The markets with strong export value of seafood in the first 5 months of the year are Mexico increased by 31.7%, Malaysia increased by 22.7%, the Philippines increased by 17.9% and Canada increased by 10%.

In terms of import value, MARD estimated that the value of imported seafood in May, 2019 reached US$ 173 million, bringing the total value of imported seafood in the first 5 months of 2019 to US$ 735 million, up 5.3 % compared to the same period in 2018.

Up to the end of April, the largest seafood import market is Norway, accounting for 11.9% of the market, followed by India, China and Japan with market shares of 11.5%, 8.7% and 7.6%, respectively; seafood import value recorded the highest increase in comparison with the same period of 2018. The Philippines market increased the most with 76.8% while seafood import value from India market witnessed the largest decreased of 44.7% compared with the same period of 2018.

In May 5, 2019, the market of raw tra fish in the Mekong tended to be slow, the price decreased about 1,000 VND per kg from the previous month to 23,500 -24,000 VND per kg for the first class (size 800-900g per fish).

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the price of tra fish material decreases as many tra fish processing enterprises have actively prepared their own raw tra fish material source and limited to buying raw tra fish material from the farmers, especially in the context that enterprises have not signed many export orders. Besides, it is also affected by the decrease in the price of raw tra fish, causing the decrease in demanding of tra fish seed, thus, the price of tra fish seed type of 30 fish per kg fluctuates around 20,000-25,000 VND per kg.

VIFEP (D-FISH )