Japanese consumers prefer Vietnamese processed shrimp products
Vietnam raked in US$515 million from exporting shrimp products to Japan in the first nine months of 2022, posting a year-on-year increase of 24%, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
The association said Japan is currently the second largest market of Vietnamese shrimp. Vietnam's processed giant tiger prawn (also called black tiger shrimp) exports to Japan increased sharply this year thanks to a high demand in the Northeast Asian country.
In the first three quarters of this year, 118 Vietnamese enterprises exported processed shrimp to Japan. Among the three main groups of shrimp products sold in Japan, the export value of processed giant tiger prawn witnessed the highest growth of 64%.
According to the International Trade Center (ITC), Japan’s import turnover in the first seven months of 2022 reached nearly US$1.3 billion, up 10% compared to the same period last year. The three biggest suppliers for the market are Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand.
Vietnam's shrimp exports to Japan are expected to remain stable in the remaining months of 2022, VASEP said.
The cost of freight to Japan is not as high as to the US and the EU. Meanwhile the inflation rate in Japan is also lower than the record inflation rates in the US and the EU, and these are considered as favourable factors for Vietnam's shrimp exports to Japan, the association noted.