Harvesting shrimp in Ba Ria - Vung Tau. Photo: Thanh Son .
Many products promote exports to the EU
Vietnamese and EU agricultural and food products do not compete with each other but complement each other. Therefore, the EVFTA Agreement is opening up great opportunities to promote import and export of agricultural products and food from both sides.
Nguyen Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the Export Support Center (Trade Promotion Department, Ministry of Industry and Trade), said that in 2021, Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU market will reach over 1 billion USD, an increase of 12 % compared to 2020. In which, exports to most EU member countries increased.
It can be said that this is a positive result in the first year that Vietnam implements the EVFTA, businesses have made good use of the preferential conditions brought by this Agreement. This number could be even higher if in the third quarter of 2021, Vietnam's seafood production is not interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Information from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers shows that seafood exports to the EU in the first half of this year grew very strongly. By the end of May, seafood exports to this market area reached US$562 million, up 45% over the same period last year.
VASEP said that in the context of high inflation, seafood exports to the EU still grew strongly in the first half of the year, due to the significant impact of the EVFTA Agreement. Since this Agreement took effect, many tax lines for Vietnamese seafood imported into the EU have been eliminated, making Vietnamese seafood more competitive in price compared to other sources.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thu Thuy, the EU is currently the second largest cashew export market of Vietnam, accounting for 23% of the total volume and 22% of the total export value of the whole cashew industry. In 2021, cashew nut exports to the EU market will reach 135 thousand tons, worth 816 million USD, up 16.5% in volume and 7.9% in value compared to 2020.
The growth of cashew exports to the EU in the past year also has an impact from the EVFTA when the tax rate on processed cashew products imported from Vietnam into the EU has been reduced to 0% immediately after this Agreement comes into effect. from August 1, 2020. This reduction is very important because before the EVFTA took effect, the tariff on cashew nuts imported into the EU from Vietnam ranged from 7 to 12%.
Rice exports to the EU also increased sharply in the first months of this year. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first two months of 2022, Vietnam exported 15,500 tons of rice to the EU market, worth $11.7 million, up nearly four times in volume and 4.3 times in value over the same period. period in 2021. In the EU, Italy suddenly took the lead in Vietnam's rice import market with an increase of 26 times over the same period in 2021. In addition, there are a number of other key markets such as Germany, France, and Hanoi. Lan…
Notably, while the country's average rice export price in the first two months of the year decreased by 12.1% to an average of $469/ton, Vietnam's rice export price to the EU still recorded an increase of 9%. up 755 USD/ton.
Harvesting rice in Long An. Photo: Minh Sang .
The price of Vietnamese rice to the EU market is higher than the national average because the rice exported to this market is mainly fragrant rice with high value. Despite the sharp increase, thanks to the EVFTA, the price of Vietnam's rice exports to the EU is still quite competitive compared to other competitors such as Cambodia, Thailand, and India.
Take the opportunity when the EU is short of food
In addition to the advantages from the EVFTA Agreement, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the sanctions imposed by the EU and US countries on Russia, are also creating more opportunities for Vietnamese agricultural products.
The EU is the main trading partner of agricultural products, food and seafood of Russia and Ukraine. Therefore, this market area is facing the risk of shortage of many important foods. Ta Ha, VASEP's pangasius market expert, said that the fact that many EU and US countries are "punishing" Russian pollock has caused the region's supply of white fish to be significantly reduced.
Russia is the largest pollock producer in the world. Data from the Groundfish Forum, shows that, in 2022, an estimated 49 percent of global pollock catches will be from Russia. Russian pollock is a product that competes strongly with pangasius in the EU white market. Therefore, the shortage of pollock supply due to the EU sanctions on Russia, is a good opportunity for Vietnamese pangasius businesses to promote frozen pangasius exports to the EU.
The results of exporting pangasius to the EU in the first half of this year prove this. In the first 5 months of this year, pangasius exports to the EU grew very strongly by 89%, reaching nearly $89 million.
Meat, dairy... EU has a large market share in Vietnam
In the opposite direction, the EVFTA is also creating favorable conditions for many EU agricultural and food products to penetrate the Vietnamese market, especially livestock products such as meat and milk.
According to the General Department of Customs, in the first 5 months of 2022, Vietnam imported 36.78 thousand tons of fresh chilled or frozen pork, with a value of 77.5 million USD. Among the 5 largest pork export markets to Vietnam, there are two EU markets: Germany and the Netherlands.
In the first half of this year, pork imports into Vietnam decreased significantly compared to the same period last year, but imports from Germany and the Netherlands increased sharply. As a result, in the first 5 months of the year, Germany became the third largest pork export market to Vietnam, accounting for 17.5% of total pork imports; The Netherlands ranked 5th with a market share of 3.8%.
The EU is also currently one of the leading export markets for milk and dairy products to Vietnam. In the first 6 months of 2021, milk and dairy products imported from the EU into Vietnam reached 96 million USD, accounting for 15% of the total value of imported milk. Many EU countries are among the largest dairy export markets to Vietnam such as Germany, France, etc.
Many EU agricultural products, food and beverages are also having many opportunities to penetrate the Vietnamese market thanks to incentives from the EVFTA such as fruit, wine, etc. Increasing income is driving demand for food products. The use of imported fruits (especially temperate fruits such as apples, pears...), wine, is increasing in Vietnam. These are the strong products of EU countries.
According to the Trade Promotion Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), in 2021, shellfish exports to the EU market increased sharply by 37% compared to 2020, reaching $ 87 million. In which, the main product, clam, increased by 42% and reached $78 million. Clams have now become the fourth largest seafood species in export value to the EU market. In which, clam exports to the three largest markets, Spain, Italy and Portugal, all increased by 38-44%.
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