Australia's seafood market and ways to promote Vietnam's seafood exports to this market

15/12/2018    416

Date: 2017

By: Vietnam Trade Office in Australia

Australia is the country with the third largest fishing area in the world with a coastline of nearly 60,000 kilometers, an area of 14 million km2. Australia has about 3,000 species of fish but only 10% of them is caught for commercial profit. The Australian seafood industry is worth about 2 billion AUD a year with about 11,600 workers (7,300 direct and 4,300 indirect).

Every year Australia consumes about 1 million tons of seafood. However, Australia's domestic production only meets 30% of the demand, must import 70% from abroad, including types such as canned fish (28%), fish fillets (21.1%), shrimp (13.6%), octopus (8.7%), others (7.3%). Major import sources include New Zealand (fish, mussels), China (shrimp, squid), Thailand (tuna), Vietnam (pangasius bocourti, seabass, shrimp). Import trends are increasing with population size and seafood consumption trend

With a population of over 24 million people (expected to increase to 40 million by 2050), Australia is one of the countries with the highest living standards in the world with average consumption of fish per capita increased by 10 kg per year from 2000 to 2001, and about 15 kg per year from 2012 to 2013. However, this average consumption is still short of 40% compared to the recommendations of the country's health organizations. Therefore, the demand for seafood consumption of Australia will increase further and is a potential market for seafood exports of Vietnam..

Although Australia has to import about USD 1.4-1.5 billion worth of seafood products annually, Vietnam is only Australia's fourth largest seafood supplier after Thailand, New Zealand and China, but only accounts for about 11%. market share.

Australia is Vietnam's potential seafood export market. However, the current problems are Australia's strict regulations on food hygiene and safety. There still are several cases where antibiotic residues and fungicide residues were found in Vietnam's seafood products, which could negatively affect the reputation of Vietnamese products if not completely eliminated.

In order to provide information about the Australian seafood market to businesses with the aim to boost Vietnam's seafood trade in Australia, the Department is pleased to introduce the research report "Australia's seafood market and ways to promote Vietnam's seafood exports to this market"

Hopefully this document will be useful for businesses.

Click here to read the report in Vietnamese