Vietnam's shrimp exports to Germany soars 93 percent

Hanoi, July 23 (VNA)- Vietnam’s shrimp exports to Germany saw a robust growth in the first five months of 2014 with a turnover of nearly 51 million USD, up 92.7 percent from a year earlier. According to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), the exports included nearly 62 percent from white-leg shrimp and 30 percent from black tiger prawn. With a population of over 80 million, the largest European economy is forecast to see increasing demands for imported shrimp and other aquatic products in the future. Vietnam is now the second largest supplier of frozen-shrimp for Germany after Thailand. Statistics from the International Trade Centre (ITC) shows that, Germany’s 2013 shrimp import from Vietnam rose by nearly 4 percent compared to those of previous years, while those from Thailand went down 11 percent. In the first half of this year, the national seafood industry posted 3.45 billion USD in export value, rising 24.2 percent over the same period last year, with 1.8 billion USD generated by shrimp exports, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Vietnam’s major export markets were the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland and the European Union.-VNA