Japan, one of the world’s largest seafood consumer markets, hold out good opportunities for Vietnamese seafood, according to experts.

In 2009, Vietnam exported seafood worth nearly US$760 million to Japan, ranking eighth among exporters to the market, of which, frozen shrimp earned US$500 million.

 

In the first five months of 2010, Vietnam earned more than US$290.8 million from seafood export to Japan, a year-on-year increase of 19 percent, making Japan Vietnam’s leading seafood importer both in value and volume.

 

Vo Thanh Ha, expert of Asia-Pacific Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, says Japanese consumers are particularly concerned about food hygiene and processing technology. As a result, Japan has set up strict technical barriers, which hinders the growth of Vietnam’s seafood exports to Japan.

 

To get the lion’s share of the Japanese market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked seafood enterprises to diversify their export products, keep a strict eye on production and processing steps as well as product quality, and boost trade promotion activities.

 

Japanese seafood businesses are boosting overseas investment and technology transfer for re-export to Japan, Ha says, adding that this would provide a good chance for Vietnamese enterprises in technology innovation.

 

(VOVNEWS)