Over the past years, along with the stable development of the economy, Vietnam's fishery industry has made great strides and become an important sector in Vietnam's economic structure. The value-chain of the fisheries sector has been formed with the participation of numerous economic sectors, although there is still a lack of sustainable linkages. The consumption market of Vietnam's seafood industry is growing significantly. The United States, Japan, the EU, and China are major import markets of the fisheries industry, representing 60% of the total export value.

The structure of enterprises and employees in the industry witnessed a deep disparity between the fishing and aquaculture industries. Besides, the scarcity of technical labor is putting more pressure on the fisheries industry, especially in the field of aquaculture, leading to a number of constraints for the development of the whole sector.

In 2019, Vietnam’s fisheries sectors suffered several difficulties related to seafood exports, especially with two key commodities, shrimp and pangasius fish. In addition, the Sino-American trade war has imposed considerable challenges on the fishery industry.

Due to the effects of the Covid-19 epidemic in early 2020, many orders were congested, canceled, or suspended, causing the companies to suffer from increasing additional costs for human resources, preservation, and inventories. On 8 June 2020, the National Assembly voted to approve the EVFTA Agreement, promising great opportunities for Vietnam's fisheries products in export activities with the European market. However, before that, Vietnam needs to put great efforts to remove the EC's "yellow card" warning, improve the reputation of fisheries products in the EU market to optimize the advantages from this Agreement.

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(Source: Vietnam Credit)