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Roundup: Vietnamese shrimp exports face risk of reduced market share

Xinhua, May 19, 2015 Adjust font size:

Many Vietnamese shrimp shipments have been rejected by its export markets due to too-high antibiotic residue level in the past four months, raising fear that market share of the country's shrimp exports will be reduced.

According to Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Tuesday, in the first four months of 2015, a total of 36 shipments have been rejected into three major markets - the United States, Japan and the European Union (EU), as antibiotic residues exceed permitted level.

Among which, Japan rejected seven, the EU said "no" to four while the United States refused 25 ones.

Thus, in the first quarter this year, the export volume of Vietnamese shrimp into the three markets plunged sharply with a year-on-year drop of 56 percent to the United States, 27.6 percent to Japan and 3.1 percent to EU, reported MoIT's Vietnam Industry and Trade Information Center (VITIC) on Tuesday.

In the first quarter, Vietnam's shrimp export revenue went down 28.1 percent year-on-year to hit 798 million U.S. dollars.

Earlier in December 2014, Vietnamese shrimp was warned for exceeding EU maximum Oxytetracycline residue levels. EU has urged Vietnam to urgently address the situation before Jan. 9, 2015 or the market will implement more control measures or stop importing Vietnamese seafood, reported VITIC.

However, in the first four months of 2015, Vietnamese shrimp shipments have been continuously rejected. If the situation keeps increasing in the coming time, Vietnamese shrimp will face risk of losing reputation, and reducing market share, warned VITIC.

Statistics by Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department showed that, the number of shipments detected with high antibiotics residues in EU market increased by seven times during 2013-2014 period.

The figure of those shipments to the United States rose by 1.6 times during 2013-2014 period.

Earlier in 2014, the United States, EU and Japan, which accounted for over 57 percent of Vietnam's shrimp exports, dismissed 92 shipments.

Last year, Vietnam earned nearly 4 billion U.S. dollars from exports of shrimp, accounting for 50 percent of total the country' s seafood export revenue. Endi