Currently, Viet Nam ranks third among Peru’s seafood suppliers. In 2012, Peru imported $79.1 million of fishery products from the world, according to statistics from International Trade Centre (ITC); 14.3 per cent of which came from Viet Nam, equal to $11.3 million, up nearly 50 per cent against that of 2011, reports VASEP.
Over the recent years, Peru showed rising demand for imported frozen fish fillets while purchase of fresh fish and frozen fish have been decreasing. In 2012, purchase of frozen fish fillets valued at $18.67 million, compared to $14.5 million reported in 2011.
In 2011, Peru sourced these products from 11 countries and territories, but the number went down to nine markets in 2012. Since 2001, imports of frozen fish fillets have remained two-digit growth; they even got the highest rise of 113 per cent and just fell down in 2004.
Since 2008, Viet Nam was the leading exporter of frozen fish fillets to Peru and even got the highest growth of 1,008 per cent. In 2012, Peru bought 3,580 MT of frozen fish fillets from Viet Nam, having a worth of $11.3 million. So far, Vietnamese products made up 60 per cent in Peru’s frozen fish fillet imports.
With total volume of $5,082 MT ($18.7 million), imported frozen fish fillets occupied the third part in terms of volume in 2012, after frozen fish products (22,924 MT and $39.6 million) and fresh fish (17.352 MT and $6.5 million). However, frozen fillets rose 35.77 per cent in volume and 28.45 per cent in value compared to 2011. In contrast, frozen products saw drop of 19.11 per cent in volume and 5.66 per cent in value; fresh fish down 4.96 per cent in volume and 20.88 per cent in value.
Of the group of imported frozen fish fillets, pangasius got the major part in both volume and value. In 2012, Peru spent $8.5 million on purchasing 2,626 MT of pangasius from Viet Nam. It also sourced 708 MT of tilapia valued $2.652 million from China, Ecuador and Viet Nam; in which, 90 per cent was Chinese fishes.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that Peruvian economy will remain steady growth of more than 6 percent in 2013 when its domestic consumption demand is increasing as the result of higher income and the growing middle class. In addition, Peru is considered as a gateway for international exporters to introduce products to its surrounding countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia and the west region of Brazil. Therefore, many Vietnamese companies are trying to boost exports of seafood and pangasius products to this market.
