According to information from the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP), last January, seafood exports increased slightly by 3% compared to the same period last year, reaching over 774 million USD.

The reason is the strong increase in demand from the Chinese market for the Lunar New Year. In particular, fresh products such as lobster, crab, clam, snail are of interest to Chinese businesses for the high-end consumption segment.

For lobster alone, export turnover to this billion-people market jumped to 70 million USD (about 1,800 billion VND), accounting for nearly half of the seafood industry's export value to China and 9 times higher than the same period in 2024.

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Vietnam's lobster exports to China increased 9 times. Photo: Anh Tu

Similarly, crab exports to China in January 2025 also increased 18 times, reaching 18.5 million USD.

VASEP said that China's strong increase in purchases of Vietnamese lobsters has pushed shrimp export turnover up 24%, determining the growth rate of our country's entire seafood industry.

Previously, in 2024, with an export turnover of 843 million USD, an increase of 39% compared to 2023, China (including Hong Kong) surpassed the US (756 million USD) to become the largest customer importing shrimp from Vietnam.

This growth is due to the sharp increase in lobster exports to China, which accounts for a large market share in the export value of the entire Vietnamese shrimp industry.

VASEP pointed out that lobster is in the high-end market segment, targeting wealthy customers. Therefore, when China's economy slows down and people's incomes decrease, it does not significantly affect the consumption of high-end seafood products.

Therefore, this year, businesses should increase lobster exports to this market to maintain the growth momentum of the entire seafood industry.

China spent a lot of money to buy Vietnamese lobsters, becoming the biggest VIP customer, surpassing even the US . China spent a lot of money to buy Vietnamese lobsters last year, making this billion-people country surpass the US to become the biggest customer of our country's 3.9 billion USD worth of goods.