Vietnam ranks third in world for shrimp production

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s Directorate of Fisheries said the year 2013 was a good one for the brackish-water shrimp in both production and prices. Whiteleg shrimp have greatly contributed to the increase and have offset the fall in shrimp production of several countries due to the impact of diseases. Vietnam ranks third in the world in terms of shrimp productivity in 2013. However, it is not clear which countries Vietnam follows. This is the first time whiteleg shrimp have surpassed tiger prawns in both production and export revenues. Vietnamese shrimp export revenues have been estimated at USD2.5 billion for 2013, up nearly 33% from a year earlier. The figure accounts for 44% of the country’s total seafood export revenues. Nguyen Huy Dien, Deputy Director of the directorate, attributed the results to the optimisation of shrimp breeding seasons and effective cold prevention methods. When the Coalition of Gulf Shrimp Industries (COGSI) lodged a petition to the US Department of Commerce (DoC) against warm-water shrimp, imported from seven countries including Vietnam, the directorate in coordination with MARD’s agency and the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Competition Management Department, provided information for exporters and prepared response methods. With this support, Vietnamese shrimp exporters quickly switched to the production of whiteleg shrimp amid a fall in supply from other major producers such as Thailand, India, China, Malaysia and Mexico. The shrimp export market has also become more favourable since the DoC confirmed, on September 20, that Vietnamese exporters did not dump their products. Statistics from 30 cities and provinces across the country, where shrimp are raised in brackish water, showed that Vietnam had around 666,000 hectares of shrimp breeding area in 2013, up 1.6% from the year before. Its shrimp production is estimated to have reached 548,000 tonnes for the year, up 12.3% from a year earlier. Of the total, tiger prawn raising areas are estimated at 600,000 hectares with an output of 268,000 tonnes, up 2.3% in terms of area and 11.3% in terms of production from the previous year. Whiteleg shrimp areas are estimated at 66,000 hectares, with a productivity of 280,000 tonnes, up 57.9% and 50.5%, respectively, from a year earlier.