Fishery exports dwindle in first four months
Fishery products shipped overseas earned US$2.63 billion for Vietnam between January and April, down 27.7% year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
In April alone, the export revenue was US$800 million, an annual drop of 28.6%.
In the first three months of the year, Japan, the US and China were the top three markets of Vietnamese fishery products, accounting for 46.1% of the country's total export of those products.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said the US is sinking deeper and deeper into the mire of rising food prices and decreasing consumption.
This situation caused Vietnam's aquatic exports to the market to maintain a steep decline of 51% in April. Consequently, the US fell to the third place in Vietnam's lineup of top seafood import markets, after Japan and China.
In the January-April period, its imports of the goods from Vietnam were estimated at US$418 million, plunging by 57% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, by the end of April, the value of Vietnamese fishery products shipped to China stood at about US$435 million, down 37% against last year.
Shipments to both Japan and the Republic of Korea also dropped compared to the same period last year, but at a slower rate than that of the US and China.