With demand on the rise, shrimp could become a major foreign exchange earner if Vietnam develops brands for the product and promotes them in key markets, British experts said.

Dr. Andrew Graffham of the Natural Resources Institute said at a meeting held Thursday that brands would create confidence in buyers who would then choose Vietnamese products over rival products.

Vietnamese seafood products have proved popular in Europe, Japan and the US since they have lower chemical residues than those from countries like Bangladesh and India, he said.

Vietnamese businesses export shrimp mostly under distributors’ and importers’ brands. They also have their own brands but have failed to popularize them in export markets.

A “made-in-Vietnam” brand would add more value and help increase shrimp exports to developed country markets, which import around 2.3 million tons a year, the institute’s experts, who are involved in a Danish International Development Agency-funded shrimp project, said.

Graffham said a national brand should be built on quality, as well as environmental and social standards demanded by buyers.

They want guarantees of food safety, like full vertical and horizontal traceability and “farm to fork” systems, quality control, environmental protection, animal and social welfare, he elaborated.

The strategy for a national brand should focus on frozen shrimp and value-added products processed under Global GAP standards practiced by European, Japanese and US retailers or Best Aquacultural Practices by US importers and retailers, he said.

He added the brand should exclude organic production and dried shrimp, also key exports.

EU prospects good

Nigel Peacock said Vietnam is strong in farmed white and black tiger prawns, holding significant shares in key markets.

Vietnam had a market share of 19 percent in Japan last year. Indonesia and India jointly have a 50-55 percent share.

Japan has been the leading buyer of Vietnamese shrimp since 2004, he said, though the share has declined due to changing tastes.

Vietnam is a minor player in the European market, which is highly promising since it is growing annually at 4-5 percent and given Vietnam’s low base and the growing prosperity of its new members, he said.

The US market is undergoing a general slowdown which has been made worse for Vietnam by the antidumping campaign that began four years ago, he said. From 42.8 million tons in 2005, exports to the US came down to 38.6 million tons last year.

The only area of relative stability in the US, he said, is raw peeled shrimp which surged to 20 million tons last year from 15 million tons in 2004.

Vietnam’s seafood exports this year are worth around $3.83 billion, a 23.7 percent year-on-year increase, with shrimp and catfish being the major items.