However, the revenue from this market still dropped11% year on year, statistics show.

Exports to Japan fell sharply interms of some key products such as white-legged shrimp down 35%, salmon down4%, and octopus down 6%. Meanwhile, increases were seen mainly in caughtseafood, including squid, scad, pollock, tuna, and jack mackerel, rising about13 - 88%.

Ranking second, the US’s fishery importsfrom Vietnam plunged 50% to about 290 million USD.

The US purchases mainly frozen products while in this segment, Vietnam isfacing great competition pressure in both supply and prices from India,Ecuador, and Indonesia, VASEP noted.

Shipments to China, another major market, declined 22% to approximate 255 millionUSD in Q1. Tra fish made up the majority of fishery exports to thisneighbouring market, 61%, while shrimp about 20%.

The Republic of Korea (RoK)’spurchase of fishery products from Vietnam also dropped 13% to nearly 178million USD. The four products with the highest export values, namelywhite-legged shrimp, octopus, surimi fish ball, and squid, also witnessedyear-on-year decreases of 2 - 26%. Meanwhile, growth was seen in the export value of sea shrimp (up 26%), tuna (nearly eight-fold), sea cucumber (51%), clam (63%),and tra fish (24%).

Exports to the EU were valued at 210 million USD in Q1, down 29%, statisticsshow.

VASEP predicted that China will become the largest market of Vietnam’s fisheryproducts, but the competition pressure is huge as exporters in other countriesare also focusing on this Northeast Asian market after its post-pandemicreopening.

Meanwhile, shipments to the EU, the US, Japan, and the RoK are unlikely to makebreakthroughs because high inflation has caused consumers there to spend less,and average export prices have declined from last year, according to VASEP./.