Australia has become Vietnam's sixth export market for seafood products

Australia was Vietnam's 9th largest seafood export market in 2018 and 6th largest in the four years since the CPTPP agreement signed between Vietnam and Australia came into force in 2019.

From 2018 to 2022, among Vietnam's top six seafood export markets, only Australia's export trade continued to grow, from US $197 million in 2018 to US $365 million in 2022, an increase of 85%. Vietnamese seafood market share in Australia also increased from 2.2% to 3.3%.

Vietnam, which mainly exports South American white prawns to Australia, exported 112 million dollars in 2018 and increased 171% to 259.5 million dollars in 2022 after the CPTPP came into effect.

Vietnam's shrimp exports to Australia accounted for 71%, up from 49% in 2018, and the piped bass was Vietnam's third largest seafood export to Australia, with exports of $21 million in 2022, accounting for 6% of the total export earnings to Australia.

Vietnamese catfish exports to Australia failed to benefit from the agreement, with export earnings falling 18 per cent from $47m in 2018 to $38m in 2022.

Vietnam is the largest supplier of seafood to the Australian market, accounting for 23 per cent of the Australian market in 2022, which is much higher than 13 per cent five years ago, thanks to Vietnam's good trade partnership and FTA agreements with Australia, including AANZFTA, CPTPP and RCEP.

After the implementation of the CPTPP agreement, the supply of Vietnamese seafood such as shrimp and catfish to Australia will enjoy a 0% tax rate.

Entering 2023, the Australian market is not immune to the effects of spiralling food inflation, leading to reduced consumption. In the first quarter of this year, Vietnam exported $63 million in seafood to Australia, down 32 percent from a year earlier, with white-legged shrimp down 34 percent, catfish down 26 percent and bass down 34 percent.