10 OUTSTANDING EVENTS OF VIETNAM'S SEAFOOD EXPORTS IN 2019

At the beginning of 2019, on January 14, 2019, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) officially came into effect with Vietnam. In addition to two new generation multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), CPTPP and EVFTA, other FTA agreements are also expected to bring many tariff opportunities for seafood businesses. Joining TPP and FTAs ​​is also a good opportunity for Vietnam's seafood to increase its competitiveness by using services to support cheaper production and expand the market. However, along with opportunities are not small challenges such as: Technical barriers and trade protection in export markets; labor challenges; regulations on administrative procedures; control and conservation of fisheries resources - IUU (EU and US); Unstable raw materials, high production costs.

In August 2019, the US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the final results of the 13th administrative review (POR 13) of Vietnam's anti-dumping tax on shrimp to the US with 31 enterprises enjoying tax rates of 0%.

There are 2 businesses that are mandatory defendants in POR13: Sao Ta Company (Fimex VN) and Nha Trang Seafood Company (Nha Trang Seaproduct Company) are entitled to 0% tax. In addition, 29 shrimp businesses are voluntary defendants also have a 0% tax rate. This is considered a good motivation for Vietnamese shrimp businesses to maintain shrimp exports to the US in 2019.

In 2019, the total value of seafood exports still increased by 8% compared to 2018 reaching over US $ 3.2 billion, but mainly increased in tuna (up 12% to US $ 728 million) and other marine fish (up 15 % reached 1.65 billion USD). Seafood exports increased mainly in other markets, while exports to the EU market decreased by 11.5%. This result reflects the consequences of IUU gold card on Vietnam's seafood export in recent years.

From November 5 to 14, 2019, the EC Inspection Delegation worked in Vietnam to check the implementation of the European Commission (EC) recommendations for IUU fishing. This is the second EU inspection since Vietnam was shown a yellow card since 2017. The EC inspection team highly appreciated and recognized Vietnam's commitment, political determination and efforts in combating IUU illegal fishing, implementing EC recommendations; affirmed that Vietnam has made much progress compared to the first inspection (May 2018) and is on the right track. However, after this second inspection, the EC still maintains Vietnam's seafood yellow card.

3 years ago in 2016, the price of Pangasius material in the Mekong Delta dropped dramatically to the historic low (within 5 years) and at times, the price was devalued, lower than the price from 18,500 - 20,500 VND/kg. By 2018, the scarce source of fish caused the price of pangasius to increase to 36,500 VND/kg. But by 2019, the high-price joy has quickly shifted to fish farmers' worries. From 34,000/kg VND (February 2019) has fallen to 19,000 - 21,000  VND/kg (December 2019). The price of raw fish has also been a reason for the declining export prices and the total export value in the markets.

Right from the beginning of 2019, seafood export to China market was affected by the tightening of border trade and quality control. In fact, this tightening of control has been taking place since mid-2018, but in 2019, this incident will clearly affect export activities. Many small businesses which used to export via quota, lack of information about the regulation of exporting through official quota were surprised and passive before the situation of prohibited export of quota. By the end of June 2019, seafood exports to China decreased slightly by 2.3% to 572 million USD, of which, shrimp exports decreased by nearly 5%, Pangasius exports increased by only 2%, tuna exports increased sharply by 183%. Since the third quarter of 2019, seafood exports to China have increased again because businesses have firmly grasped the regulations of the market and have had better adjustments.

On July 5, 2019, Decree No. 42/2019 / ND-CP (the Decree replaces the Government's Decree No. 103/2013 / ND-CP) stipulating sanctions against administrative violations in the field of fisheries. officially take effect. This Decree raises the maximum fine level for an administrative violation of an individual in the fisheries domain to 1 billion VND (compared to 100 million VND under the old regulation of Decree 103/2013). For cases where organizations commit the same acts of violations as individuals, the fine level is twice the fine level for individuals. This Decree also stipulates in more detail 8 administrative violations, sanctions and remedial measures. This is a specific action of the Government in the determination to combat IUU fishing and considers this an important and top priority task.

After many months of waiting, finally, on November 5, 2019, the US Federal Register Office has officially released a law document from the Department of Food Safety Inspection (FSIS) of the Ministry of Agriculture American Industry recognizes that Vietnam is a country eligible to export Siluriformes fish and fish products to the United States. This is good news for Pangasius exporting enterprises who are participating stubbornly in the US market even though it is still sad about the high anti-dumping tax barrier. Contrary to the hope of taking advantage of opportunities from the prolonged US-China trade war, Vietnamese pangasius will push up to the US market. Until the first half of December 2019, Pangasius exports to the US reached 270.5 million USD, down 48.5% compared to the same period last year. The gap between pangasius export value to the US market and the largest export market is China - Hong Kong is growing. Until now, the value of exporting pangasius to the US is only half compared to going to China - Hong Kong.

On November 20, 2019, with 90.06% of deputies from the National Assembly voting, the National Assembly adopted the Labor Code (amended) with 10 new points for employees and 6 new points for employers. This is a "hottest" Code for the business community, including seafood enterprises in 2019. Because as soon as this revised Labor Code came to comments, it has received a lot of  contrariwise comments. In particular, 3 issues are: Overtime, standard working time and retirement age are the most controversial.

In 2019, the country's seafood export is estimated at over 8.6 billion USD, down 2.3% compared to 2018. Among key products, only tuna maintains positive growth of nearly 12%, other items decreased: shrimp down nearly 5%, pangasius down nearly 12%, squid, octopus down 13%. In addition, exports of products from other types of fish also increased relatively to 15%, contributing to reducing the decline in turnover due to shrimp, pangasius, squid and octopus.

As of the second half of December, 2019, the total value of seafood exports to Japan reached 1.4 billion USD, up 6.9% over the same period last year. With the current value, Japan is temporarily the largest export market of Vietnam seafood enterprises (compared to the third position in 2018). This year is also the first year Japan entered the top 10 largest export markets of Vietnam pangasius.

Source: http://vasep.com.vn